My Girlfriend's Sister's Keeper
by bodybroke
Summary: Brittany isn't the only Pierce that has Santana wrapped around her finger. Santana's life with her two favorite people.
1. Chapter 1

**This is kinda of a continuation of my one shot for Brittana Week (Girls Become Lovers Who Turn Into Mothers), but you don't have to read that at all to read this. I even debated just posting this/these in that fic, but decided against it. This will basically just be random cute moments of Brittana/Brittany's little sister Ashley, because I had a lot of fun write them in that one, and there isn't enough Brittany's sister in fics. So far, the ones I have in mind are all after they've come out, and there will likely be some references to canon events, either just for fun or for timeline reference, but overall, canon stuff won't really factor into this. The chapters won't really be connected, though there might be small references to connect them every once in a while.**

* * *

"Your turn," Brittany cheers as she renters her bedroom, all clean and ready for bed. They don't usually go to bed so early, but it's been a really tiring day, coming out to her family and all.

Santana quickly finishes typing out her text to her mother, letting her know she's staying at Brittany's for the night, and tosses her phone on the bed. She moves towards the door, meeting Brittany half way for a kiss before she leaves. "Mmm, minty fresh."

"Hurry up," Brittany laughs, smacking Santana's ass lightly. "I wanna make sure we have time to get our cuddle on before bed."

"Yeah, since that's all we're gonna be able to do now," Santana grumbles, just remembering the new open door policy Brittany's parents had instilled. She suspects that was partly her own mother's doing, though, since normally the Pierces were totally laid back about that kind of thing.

Brittany pouts back, kissing her girlfriend's cheek to try to make her feel better. "I know. We'll just have to get creative."

"Ohh, challenge accepted," Santana replies, tickling Brittany's sides and rushing out the door before the blonde can retaliate.

Her before bed routine is somewhat involved, but she's pretty fast about it, and tonight she's done in just over five minutes. She's heading back to Brittany's room when she sees Ashley's bedroom light is still on. She's confused for a moment, before remembering the Pierces have recently extended her bedtime an extra hour, much to her excitement.

"You ready for bed, munchkin?" Santana asks, as she pops her head into Ashley's room. The little girl is in her pajamas and sitting on her bed, but isn't under the covers yet.

"Yep!" she cheers, closing the book she had been reading. She wishes she didn't have to go to sleep yet, but her parents _just_ changed her bedtime, so she can't complain. "Will you come tuck me in?"

"Sure," Santana agrees easily, more than used to Ashley's bed time ritual after all the nights she's spent at the Pierce house. She was worried things might feel differently now that they were out, and Brittany's family knew they were dating, but so far, everything was the same as it's always been. "Actually, can I talk to you about something?"

"Okay!" Santana might just be Ashley's favorite person in the world, so she's more than excited Santana wants to talk to her. Santana sits down on the edge of her bed, patting the space beside her, which Ashley immediately fills.

"Earlier, when me and Britt told you and your parents about us," Santana starts, not really sure what to say. She figures this is probably a conversation Mr. and Mrs. Pierce should be worrying about, but she and Ashley are buds, and she wants to make sure things are clear for her. "You understood what we were saying, right?"

"That you guys are girlfriends now?" Ashley asks, looking up at the older girl with bright blue eyes that look so much like her sister's. "And you hold hands and kiss and stuff, like Britty used to do with Artie?"

Santana cringes a little, but nods, running her fingers through thin blonde hair. "Yeah, kinda like that. Is that okay with you?"

"'Course," she shrugs, like it's no big deal. And in her eight year old mind, it really isn't. "I'm glad cause I like you better than Artie."

"Oh yeah?" Santana asks with a chuckle, secretly really glad to hear that. It had been bad enough having to see Brittany with Wheels, but it'd really suck to know Ashley liked him better.

Ashley nods enthusiastically, tugging at the sleeve of her pajamas. "He never really played with me, and never wanted to watch movies with me when I asked him and Britty to. And he was always talking to me like I was a baby! And he smelled like grandpa," she rattled off, trying to remember what else she didn't like about him. He didn't really come over that often, and it felt like such a long time ago to her. "But I like you more than almost everybody in the whole world, so even if he was nicer to me, I'd probably still like you better."

"You," Santana begins, suddenly overwhelmed with affection for the little girl. She hooks her arm around tiny shoulders and pulls her into her side for a hug. "Are one of my favorite people in the whole world too."

"After Britty?" Ashley guesses knowingly, her question kind of muffled by Santana's body.

"After Britty," Santana admits, ruffling the girl's hair as she moves away again. "But _right_ after. You're number two. There's like six billion people in the world, so number two is pretty huge. Granted, I barely like anyone, but that makes you even more special."

Ashley giggles at the older girl, already feeling pretty special. Santana always manages to do that some how. "What about Lord Tubbington? Is he third? Cause he liked you better than Artie too. He always hissed at him."

"Yeah, Tubbs is cool," Santana admits. She usually pretends to hate him, or be jealous, because than Brittany goes out of her way to make sure she knew she came first. "But don't tell Britt."

"Promise," Ashley swears, holding up her pinky. Santana smiles and hooks her pinky around the smaller one.

"Okay, time for bed, missy," she tells her, wiggling their fingers and standing up. She picks up the giggling girl and throws her over her shoulder to pull down the covers on the bed.

"Tana! Put me down!"

Santana can't resist tickling her before dropping the hysterical girl back into bed. She gets in a few more pokes before she relents, letting the little girl catch her breath.

"She's never gonna sleep now," Brittany comments from the door, the biggest smile spread across her face from watching the pair. She just loves watching Santana with her little sister. Other than her, Ashley is probably the only other person Santana is always nice to. And okay, maybe it makes her think about how adorable Santana would be with their kids when they get older. But she'd never tell Santana that.

"Britty!" Ashley waves at her sister as she tries to catch her breath. Santana throws Brittany a quick smile before pulling the covers up over Ashley to finish tucking her in.

Brittany watches Santana brushes the blonde hair out of Ashley's face and drop a kiss on her forehead. "Goodnight, kiddo."

"Tana," Ashley asks, calmed down now. "Can you drive me to school tomorrow?"

"Of course," she tells her, tugging on the cover to make sure it's up as far as it'll go. "Now go to sleep, I'll see you in the morning."

"Okay," the tiny blonde says, her voice already sounding tired. "Night Tana, night Britty."

"Night, Ash," Brittany calls, holding her hand out for Santana as her girlfriend makes her way over to her. She squeezes Santana's hand and flips off the light, pulling them towards her own room. Once inside, Brittany closes the door and presses Santana up against it with a smirk.

"I think that doors supposed to stay open."

Brittany ignores her. "What took you so long?"

"Ash wanted me to tuck her in."

"That doesn't usually take ten minutes," she comments, bringing her lips to Santana's neck, knowing it drives the other girl crazy.

Santana's eyes flutter closed for a moment, already finding it hard to speak. "I wanted to talk to her."

"About what?"

"Us," she breathes out, bringing her hands up to rest on Brittany's hips. Almost immediately, Brittany pulls back a bit and she groans.

"What?" she asks, confused. "Us? What'd you say?"

"I just wanted to make sure she understood what we told her this afternoon," Santana answers, pinching the blonde's sides. "And that she was okay with it."

"And?"

"She gets it and she's cool," she whispers, trailing her hands up her girlfriend to loop them around her neck. "You know she likes me better than Artie?"

Brittany laughs. "Duh, San. I'm pretty sure she likes you better than _me_."

"She has even better taste than I thought then," Santana teases, leaning forward to kiss Brittany lightly on the lips. "Don't worry, Britty. You're still _my_ favorite."

"Mmmm," the blonde hums against her girlfriend's lips. "I like you best too."

* * *

**Hope you guys liked it, and will review! If there's any particular scenario you'd like to see, maybe leave it as a suggestion in a review and I'll think about it! I have five chapters in my head, so I'm aiming for that many as of now, but if anyone is actually interested in any of these, I might do more.  
**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed the first chapter and showed interest in this! Here's the next chapter. This kind of ended up totally different from where it started, and I wanted a bit more Brittany/Brittana, but I'll just be sure to add some more in the next chapter. Not totally sure how well this fits into that first scene in Girls Become, but it's not technically connected so I can get away with it. I also kind of dropped some hints at possible future chapters, which, even though I never originally intended for any of the chapters to be connected, might get brought up again later and focused on, depending! Anyway, enjoy.**

* * *

"What are you doing after school?" Santana hears from behind her locker door. She jumps a bit, slamming her locker shut to reveal her girlfriend on the other side. Brittany grins at her, and taps her on the nose in greeting, knowing the other girl isn't comfortable with huge displays of public affection yet.

Santana can't help but beam back at the blonde, grabbing her hand before it falls away, to hold in her own. She knows it's hard for Brittany to control her natural urge to be affectionate with her, but she's trying so hard for her, and Santana couldn't be more thankful for her patience. "Just some homework, probably dinner at your house," she informs her, giving her hand an affectionate shake. "But no big plans. Why?"

"Well," Brittany starts, drawing the word out in a telltale sign that she's about to ask for a favor. "Someone called an emergency student council meeting for after school, and apparently I'm supposed to be going to those, so I have to stay after for a bit."

"Okay?"

"But we were supposed to pick up Ashley from school today," she finishes, using her free hand to pull at the pelts of Santana's Cheerio's skirt. "And last time I forgot to pick her up, she sat outside for two hours and almost got abducted before I remembered to get her."

"Britt Britt," the brunette laughs, remembering that afternoon and all the ice cream they had to buy Ashley to make it up to her. "She was not almost abducted, that was her principal offering her a ride."

The blonde pulls a face. "But he's really creepy, San. And he was driving a white van."

"Yeah, a _miniv_an."

"Anyway, she still cried and I still got grounded, so-"

"I'll pick the midget up," Santana cuts her off, silencing her with a squeeze of her hand. Brittany's face lights up and she bounces on the balls of her feet in excitement. She glances around quickly to make sure there aren't a lot of people in the hallway, before she leans forward to give Santana a sloppy kiss on the cheek.

"Sorry," she immediately says, though the grin on her face contradicts her words. She reaches out and wipes at the other girl's cheek as if it'll take the kiss back. "I couldn't help myself."

Santana's face is about to break from smiling so big, signaling that she didn't mind in the least. "It's okay, B."

"Ash's school gets out at-"

"Three, I know," she finishes. "We've been picking her up from school for years, Britts, I think I can handle it."

"Thank you, you're the best," Brittany tells her in a voice that sounds like she just agreed to give her a kidney or something. "Just watch out for that creepy guy in the white van, okay?"

* * *

Ashley's school is only about a five minute drive away and McKinley lets out a half hour before them, so Santana ends up waiting around with a bunch of moms for about twenty minutes before she hears the bell ring, and a bunch of little kids start flowing out. Whenever they pick Ashley up from school (which is more often than not), they wait in the same spot at the end of the sidewalk for her, so Santana stays put.

Ten minutes later, and Ashley still hasn't come out. She cranes her neck to see if she can see the tiny blonde anywhere, but there's no sign of her. Instead, she spots one of Ashley's friends she knows from sleepovers at the Pierces, being picked up by her mother. "Hey, Katie!"

The little girl and her mother both turn around at her name, and the girl smiles and waves at her. "Santana!" As she makes her way over, she can see Katie's mother giving her a questioning look, obviously wondering who she was and why she knew her daughter. "Mommy, this is Santana. She's Ashley's sister!"

Katie's mother looks at Santana again and raises an eyebrow at that. "Not quite," Santana corrects when she reaches them. She's not sure if she should elaborate her answer or not. She wants to start being braver, but she also doesn't know this women. She doesn't know if she's going to be close minded and decide that Katie can't come over and play with Ashley anymore because of her or Brittany. In the end, she decides to be honest. "Um, I'm actually _dating _Ashley's sister. But I'm over there enough I might as well be one of their children, so … I can see where she got confused."

"Oh," the older woman responds, eyeing Santana's uniform, but otherwise not betraying her feelings on the matter. "I thought I recognized you."

"Right," Santana deflates a little at the reminder. "The commercial." She sometimes forgets that other people, people she doesn't even know, have seen it. That there are people in town, hell, in the state, that will know she's a lesbian before she even meets them, before she can have that internal debate about whether to risk mentioning it or not. "Anyway, um, I'm actually here to pick Ashley up, but I haven't seen her yet. I was just wondering if Katie knew where she was?"

Her mother looks down at Katie to see if she knows. The little girl looks to be thinking long and hard to remember where her friend is. After a moment, a light bulb seems to go off, and she smiles up at the cheerleader. "I think I saw her with some of the other girls, out in the back!"

"Okay," Santana smiles, ruffling Katie's blonde hair. "Thanks, Katie. I owe you some ice cream the next time you sleep over at Ash's, okay? I mean, if it's okay with your mom."

The older woman locks eyes with her and her hesitance lets Santana know that she understands what she's is really asking. "We'll see," she says, immediately looking away from Santana to her daughter. "Come on, Katie. Say goodbye, it's time to go."

"Bye, Santana!" she cheers, oblivious to the tension between the two women. Santana weakly waves back, a knot in her stomach over the fact that she might have just cost Ashley a friend. She sighs once they're out of view, making a mental note to get Mrs. Pierce to talk to Katie's mother, and then spins on her heel, heading towards the school yard, where she really hopes Ashley is.

As soon as she rounds the corner, she sees Ashley standing with a group of three taller girls, clutching her backpack to her chest like a shield as they look to be reading her something. As she gets closer, she can hear more of their conversation and quickens her pace when she hears Ashley yelling, "I'm not stupid!"

"Hey!" Santana shouts, taking quick strides over to the group of girls. Once she reaches them, she tucks Ashley protectively into her side, rubbing soothing circles on her back and glaring at the other girls. "What's going on here?"

"Nothing," one girl stutters out, recognizing Santana's Cheerios uniform as a sign of superiority.

"Who're you?" another ones asked, her eyes widening a bit in fear at the older girl. The third one stays silent.

"Auntie Snix," she sneers, snatching the piece of paper out of the leader's hands. She smirks as they flinch, then turns it around to read it. Her eyes soften when she sees it's a spelling test of Ashley's, one she didn't do very well on. She glances down at the blonde and sees her eyes are misty and her bottom lip is trembling. She remembers that look better than she'd like.

Ashley isn't quite as imaginative and fantastical as her older sister is, but she sometimes struggles with school work the same way Brittany always has. Santana remembers Brittany getting picked on in elementary school and all the bullies she had to fight off to protect her best friend. But Ashley doesn't have a little Santana to help her like Brittany did.

"Look, you little bitches," she snaps, not quite sure how to feel about trying to make eight year olds cry. She makes a mental note to avoid more swearing when she sees how scandalized the girls look. "I'm from a place called Lima Heights Adjacent and … even though you're eight years old, I will not hesitate to ends you if I hear you're picking on my girl Ashley again. Got it?"

She gets three head nods, but that's not good enough for her. She raises an eyebrow, prompting them for more. "Got it."

"Good." She smiles sweetly at the girls. "Now be sure to spread the word to all your other little bratty friends, cause if I hear from Ash that _anyone_ has said anything less than sunshiny to her, I'm gonna hold you three personally responsible. Clear?" The three nod again. "Now get lost before I show you some _real _Lima Heights hospitality."

The girls rush off, wanting to get away from Santana as quickly as possible. Waiting until they were alone, Santana bends down so she's eye level with Ashley and gives her an encouraging smile, just waiting.

"Thank you," Ashley whispers, not meeting Santana's eyes. She's incredibly thankful for Santana's actions, knowing that they'll actually work, but she's still embarrassed that she had to do that. She likes to seem tough and smart around the older girl, and not like a baby that gets picked on at school and needs someone else to fight her battles. Normally she's pretty good with bullies, but like Brittany, her intelligence is a sore subject and when someone attacks it, she's more likely to cry than fight back.

"Of course," Santana promises, gently tilting the girl's chin up to look at her. "Protecting Pierces is like my job. Just ... don't tell anyone I just threatened a group of eight year olds, okay? That won't be good for my street cred."

Ashley gives her a little smile, glad Santana wasn't making a big deal out of it like her mother probably would. "When my teacher was handing back our spelling tests, she accidently gave mine to someone else, and they saw how bad I did, and told everyone and they all laughed."

"Hey, hey, it's okay," Santana assures her, knowing the girl is embarrassed. "There's nothing wrong with that, Ash. Everyone is good at their own thing. So you're not that great with words, neither is Britt, and Britt is totally awesome, right?" Ashley nods, her eyes lighting up at the comparison. "Besides, I know you've got to be the best artist in your class, am I right? And I bet you can kick all their asses on the soccer field."

"Totally," Ashley agrees proudly. Santana grins at her, cupping the little girl's cheeks to wipe away the tears with the pads of her thumbs.

"If anyone starts picking on you again, I want you to tell me or Britt, okay?" Ashley nods. "Especially if it's about your grades. You're a little genius, just like your sister, so don't let anyone tell you differently."

"Thanks, Tana."

"Anytime, sweetie." With a kiss to the cheek, Santana gently removes the backpack from Ashley's hands, and stands up, tucking it under her arm. "Now come on. We gotta go back to McKinley to pick President Britt up."

Santana holds her hand out and Ashley grips it with her smaller one, and the two start their journey to Santana's car. "Can we get ice cream on the way home?"

Santana laughs. "I don't think your mother would appreciate it if I spoiled both your appetites before dinner. Besides, it's Tuesday, which means Britt get to pick, which means mac and cheese. Don't wanna ruin that, do you?"

"Guess not," Ashley pouts.

"After dinner," Santana promises, squeezing the girl's hand. She knows Brittany will want some for having to stay after school and she figures Ashley deserves it, too.

"You're the best, Tana!"

"Yeah, yeah," Santana mumbles, as if being adored is an inconvenience. "That's what you Pierces keep telling me."

* * *

**Please review if you liked it and/or have any other suggestions for topics to cover!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Okay, finally updating! This one was kind of hard to write for reasons. I knew the general idea I wanted for the story of this chapter, but it was hard to find situations to apply it to, if that makes sense. Still not really happy with the resolution, I actually ended up doing something different than I had originally planned there, but oh well. I reached the point where I just wanted this done, so this is the result. I hope you like it anyway, I continue to be awesome by reviewing! All the reviews so far have made me a very happy camper! And has definitely cheered up after the mess that was that finale! Enjoy!**

* * *

"Why do you like this show so much?" Brittany asks, narrowing her eyes at the screen. "I own three My Little Pony DVDs and even _I_ think it's bad."

Santana laughs, pulling Brittany's body even closer. "That's _why_ I like it, Britt-Britt. It's a train wreck. Like watching Berry and Triangle Brows try to muster up sexual chemistry for Westside Story by boning their boy toys."

"Gross mental picture, San," the blonde replies, scrunching up her face in disgust. Before she can scold her girlfriend further, the sound of tiny footsteps coming in their direction cuts her off, followed by a knock at her door. "What, Ash?"

Not waiting for an actual invitation, Ashley pushes the door open, and enters her sister's room. She's not at all surprised to find Brittany and Santana cuddling on her bed, but at least they have clothes on this time. She glances at the television in the corner, and sees Sweet Valley High playing. "I'm bored. Can I watch, too?"

"Sorry, squirt," Santana answers, making the little girl stop in her tracks. "We're having a Britt-Britt/Santana night. Maybe tomorrow, okay?"

"Oh," Ashley responds quietly, not used to Santana denying her anything. "Okay." She waits a moment, as if Santana will tell her she was just kidding. When they just go back to watching their show, she pouts and leaves the room, closing the door behind her.

* * *

"Is Santana here yet?"

Ashley looks up from her math book and shakes her head. "Tana's coming over?"

"Yeah," Brittany throws over her shoulder as she heads into the living room to look for her cell phone. "We're going to-"

She's cut off by the front door opening and Santana's voice calling into the house. "You're not answering your phone!"

"I know, I lost it again," she pouts, giving her girlfriend a kiss when enters the room.

"I told you to keep it in your pocket, babe," Santana laughs, eyeing the room quickly to see if she can spot it. Sometimes Brittany can miss really obvious things.

Brittany huffs, frustrated at her failed search. "I know, but my Cheerios uniform doesn't have pockets, and I don't wear a bra to school anymore, so I can't keep it in there like you do."

"Me gusta," the brunette smirks, pulling at Brittany's arms to get her to stand still. She tugs Brittany flush against her body. "Let's just go and we'll look for it when we come back."

"Where are you going?" Ashley asks, leaning against the doorway, her hands behind her back. The girls pull apart to look over at the little girl.

"Getting some ice cream," Santana answers. "It's kind of a double date thing, with Mercedes and Sam, though Mercedes doesn't know that yet, so …"

Ashley might not be the smartest eight year old, but she gets it. "Okay," she mumbles, disappointed. "Um, well, here's your phone, Britty. You left it in the kitchen when you came home from school."

"Oh, thanks, Ash," the taller blonde cheers, completely missing how disappointed her sister is. She grabs the phone from her outstretched hand and then pulls Santana towards the door. "Let's go, San. If Mercedes gets there before we do, she's not gonna stay with Sam."

"Coming, darling," Santana laughs, letting herself be pulled along. She throws a distracted wave in Ashley's direction before they disappear out the door, with no promises of bringing her back a cone.

* * *

"We're leaving now," Brittany informs her mother, peaking into the kitchen where the woman is cleaning up from dinner. "The movie should be done by ten, though."

"Can you please take your sister with you?"

Brittany makes a face. "But _mom_, we haven't had a date night all week."

"And your father and I haven't had a date night in years," her mother counters, raising a challenging eyebrow at her eldest daughter.

Brittany wants to argue some more, but she's afraid her mother might tell her what they have planned for their own date night, and she really doesn't want to hear that. "Fine, but we're not calling to warn you before we come home, so you can't do anything gross." With that, she twirls around to meet Santana at the front door.

"Ready?"

"Mom says we have to take Ash with us." She doesn't give Santana a chance to react before she calls up to her sister. "Ash! Get down here, you're coming to the movies with us!"

Ashley perks up, and wastes no time scrambling to get ready, before she runs downstairs to meet the older girls. She beams at them, thrilled at the invitation. "Are we seeing Alvin and the Chipmunks?"

"I guess we are now," Santana mumbles. That was definitely _not_ what they were planning on seeing. Brittany elbows her to keep quiet and they head out of the door.

They make it to the theater in record time, and get lucky that there's a showing of the Chipmunks movie at the same time as the movie they had originally planned on seeing. Santana scans the board quickly to see if there's any other movie that would be appropriate for Ashley to see that wasn't about talking animals, but there isn't. Sighing, she hands the vendor enough money for three tickets and they head inside. They get Ashley some snacks, and enter their theater to find it's only about a quarter full, which isn't surprising for a Thursday night showing of a kid's movie in Lima.

Santana motions for Brittany to stay put while she takes Ashley's hand and walks her down a couple of steps to the third row of seats from the top. "You sit here, okay? And don't move at all. If you have to go to the washroom, come get one of us to take you, we'll be just back there."

"Wait," Ashley speaks, confused at the instructions. She's gone to the movies with Brittany and Santana tons of times, and they've always sat together. She looks back up at Brittany, who's tapping her foot impatiently. She brings her eyes back to Santana, suddenly feeling embarrassed for some reason. "I don't get to sit with you guys?"

"It's just, this was supposed to be a date, you know?" Santana quickly explains, not picking up on Ashley's hurt feelings. "But your mom asked us to take you out of her hair for a couple hours, and I really don't want to watch Alvin and the Chipmunks. So, you watch the movie here, and Britts and I can do our thing back there, okay?"

"San, come on!" Instead of waiting for Ashley's answer, Santana just ruffles her hair before quickly making her way back to Brittany, pushing her into the back row of seats with a laugh. Ashley watches them, feeling more disappointed than she can ever remember feeling, and slumps into the chair Santana told her to sit in. She tosses her candy to ground, suddenly not very hungry at all.

* * *

When Santana comes over that weekend, she doesn't even greet her at all. She just comes in the door like she always does, and heads straight for the stairs. Ashley listens from the living room and rolls her eyes when she hears the girl calling for her sister. She doesn't bother telling her that Brittany isn't home, just lets her figure it out on her own.

It takes a couple of minutes for her to make her way back downstairs and wander into the living room when she notices Ashley is in there watching TV and doing homework. "Hey, squirt. Where's Britt?"

"Not home," Ashley mumbles, not in the mood to talk to her.

Santana twirls her car keys on her finger, glancing into the kitchen as if her girlfriend might be in there. "Where's she at?"

Ashley sighs when she realizes she's not gonna be able to ignore her. "Mom was supposed to pick up Aunt Carol from the airport, but she's not feeling well, so she's taking a nap and Britt went to do it. She left like an episode ago."

"Okay," Santana responds, wondering for a moment why Brittany didn't text her, before remembering the girl probably lost her cell again. She shrugs and moves into the room, dropping down on the couch beside the little girl. "Well, I'll just chill with you until she gets back then." Ashley scoffs but doesn't say anything else. After a few minutes of silence, Santana speaks up again, nodding towards the notebook in the girl's lap. "Whatcha doing?"

"None of your business," Ashley snaps. Santana's eyes widen at the words, surprised by the hostility coming from the normally friendly little girl.

"Whoa," she responds in surprise, leaning away a bit at the force of the words. "What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing."

"Doesn't seem like nothing." Ashley sighs and mumbles something that Santana doesn't catch. "Huh?"

"I said I'm mad at you," she speaks again, this time looking up and attempting to glare at the other girl. But she's a Pierce, so it just comes out looking too adorable to be intimidating.

Santana tries not to smile adoringly at her. "Why? What did I do to you?"

"Nothing."

"Then why are you mad?"

"That's _why_ I'm mad!" she exclaims, slapping a tiny fist on her open notebook. Santana flinches at the noise, and frowns, realizing that Ashley really is upset. She waits for a moment while the blonde breathes heavily, trying to calm down. "Ever since you and Britty started dating, you've been ignoring me."

Santana is pretty sure that's not true. "What? No, I haven't."

"You have," Ashley insists. "Maybe not the whole time you've been dating, but lately whenever you come over, you just hang out with Britt."

"Ash…"

"I know you've always come over for Britt," Ashley continues, trying to avoid looking at Santana. "But you used to come into my room for a bit, too. You guys would watch movies with me, or let me watch with you. You'd take me to get ice cream, or to the park or help me with my homework." Santana watches as Ashley wipes her eyes with her sleeve and her heart breaks. "Now you guys watch things in her room and don't let me come in. And I can't get ice cream with you because now it's a double date with stupid people from your stupid glee club! And when you finally let me come with you somewhere, it's because mom made you take me, and you made me sit by myself so you guys could suck face in the back! It's not _fair_!"

Santana is taken aback by the outburst, but she can't deny that Ashley is right. She thinks over the past couple of weeks, remembering all the times her and Brittany have denied or ditched Ashley, and she feels horrible. She remembers the movies just a couple days ago, and she really can't believe she made her sit by herself.

Ashley _is_ right. Before they were out, she always used to hang out with Ashley, and she and Brittany were always including her in things. But ever since they came out, they've been so wrapped up in being able to be together that they've been leaving her out. It wasn't intentional at all, but seeing that hurt look on Ashley's little face and her watery eyes, that didn't really seem to matter at all.

"Oh, sweetie," she whispers, trying to pull the smaller girl into her arms. The blonde resists at first, but eventually gives in, and lets herself be embraced. She expects Ashley to start crying, but she holds herself together, just letting a few sniffles out. "Ash, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, you're totally right."

"I know Britt is your girlfriend now, and not just your best friend," she continues, her voice much calmer than it was a moment ago. "But … you're still _my_ best friend and it makes me sad that you don't like me anymore."

Santana feels her stomach drop to her feet. She swallows passed the lump in her throat to speak. "Ash, no, that's not it at all. Of course I still like you, I _love_ you. You're one of my favorite people in the world, remember? I love spending time with you, you know that. It's just, this is all new, you know? Britts and I aren't used to being able to be girlfriends in front of other people yet. We spent so long hiding it, and trying to act like we were just best friends, we're kind of making up for lost time now, I guess." Santana runs her fingers through Ashley's hair soothingly, hoping to comfort the girl. "But that's no excuse. Things are different now, and we obviously still have to figure out how to adjust properly, but it doesn't change the way I feel about you, okay, kiddo? I still love you very much, and I'm really sorry that I haven't been showing you that."

"It's okay," Ashley mumbles out, trying to play it off now. She's glad she finally said something, but now that Santana is reassuring her, she feels kind of silly. "I was being stupid."

"Hey," Santana immediately chastises, urging the blonde to look up at her. She gently cups the little girl's cheeks and speaks softly to her. "You know I don't like you using that word. You were not being stupid and it's not okay. I haven't been spending enough time with you, you're right. I'm not sure how yet, but I'll figure it out, okay, I will. I'll figure out how to be Brittany's girlfriend and your best friend, I promise."

Ashley nods because Santana never breaks her promises, and scrunches her face as she receives a kiss on her forehead. She buries herself deeper into Santana's arms and just enjoys her company for a change. Santana tightens her hold and promises herself to do better. She can't stand when one of her girls is upset, and she refuses to be the cause of it ever again.

* * *

"Are you sure you'll be okay for the day, B?" Santana asks for what feels like the hundredth time. "You know you can come with us."

Brittany smiles and playfully rolls her eyes at her girlfriend. "I'll be fine, San. Quinn and Mercedes are coming over to take me shopping. Besides, I think we both know Ashley needs a little Santana time to herself."

When Santana had told Brittany everything her sister had been feeling when she got home that night, the blonde had felt just as guilty as Santana did. Sure, she had still been spending time with the girl since they lived together and she wasn't with Santana at all hours of the day, but she had still been monopolizing her time and she felt horrible for that. She knew how much Ashley loved Santana, and she'd never purposely keep Santana from her.

"I just feel like I'm being a bad girlfriend by ditching you," Santana pouts, slipping her arms around Brittany's waist and burying her face in the crook of her neck. Brittany laughs and wraps her arm loosely around the shorter girl's shoulders.

"You're not ditching me," Brittany promises, her lips tingling the shell of Santana's ear. "You're spending the day with my little sister, who adores you. That actually makes you like the best girlfriend ever, I'm pretty sure."

"Really?" the brunette mumbles.

"Really," she repeats, and pulls back to look at the other girl. "Santana, I _love_ how much you love Ashley and how good you are with her. It makes me feel all warm and gooey inside."

Santana beams, pretty sure she knows why. "Yeah?"

"Yeah," Brittany whispers, leaning forward to kiss Santana softly. Just as she does, Ashley comes barreling down the stairs, dressed and ready for her day with Santana, but stops in her tracks when she sees them kissing.

"Oh, sorry," she mumbles, looking everywhere but at them. Normally she'd just tease them and tell them to stop being gross, but with everything recently, it feels weird. And she's kind of suddenly worried that Santana is about to tell her that she has plans with Brittany now instead. "Um, are we still going?"

Santana's heart clutches at her uncertainty and she looks at Brittany, only to see that the blonde is obviously feeling the same. She quickly nods her head, and disengages from Brittany's hold. "Hells yes, we are. Come on, munchkin, say goodbye to Britty, cause I may kidnap you and never bring you back again!"

"Tana!" Ashley squeals when the older girl comes over and scoops her up in her arms. She kicks widely as she's walked to the door, but manages to stop and hug her sister on their way by. "Bye, Britty!"

"Have fun!" Brittany calls out, watching her girls leave with a smile.

* * *

**So yeah, finding situations where Brittana would've normally included Ashley, but didn't now that they're dating, and finding ways to do that so they didn't seem too mean was kind of hard, but hopefully it worked, and they just came off more oblivious than mean! Anyway, please review, and as always, I'm open to any suggestions for a topic to cover!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey, hey! I took longer to update this than I wanted, but I finally did! I have a few ideas I was choosing from, and even though one of my other ones, which I plan to write eventually, should come before this one, I just ended up writing this one anyway. So you can officially ignore the sequence of events on some of these, since I guess they ended up being connected in a way afterall. This also totally fits into canon timeline, with specific references to things on the show. I mostly wanted to avoid that, and only have vague references to canon, but this was a topic I wanted to touch because I felt like no fics were doing it. **

**This chapter is also more Brittana than Ashley, but she still plays a role and is present the whole time. As usual, this didn't really end up where I originally planned, and it actually kind of recycles the plot from last chapter in a way (another reason I didn't want to do this chapter now, but whatever), but hopefully you still enjoy and review!**

* * *

"Britty?" Ashley calls out to her sister, as she hovers at the entryway to the living room. She had heard her sister come home a while ago, but was surprised she hadn't seen her yet. If she's home before the older girl, she usually sees her and Santana stumbling past her door on their way to Brittany's bedroom, but after waiting, she still hadn't seen her sister. She eventually ventured downstairs and risked catching the girls making out on the couch or something even worse, to see what was going on. They weren't sucking face, though. Actually, Santana wasn't even there, which was even weirder.

"Hey, Ash," Brittany mumbles half heartedly, not even bothering to look up at her sister. She's curled up on the sofa with her face half buried in a pillow, not even watching the muted television in front of her.

Ashley might be little, but she's good with people like her sister is, and it seems obvious to her that Brittany is sad about something. Ashley shuffles into the room and kneels down on the floor in front of her sister, leaning forward against the couch cushions so their faces are only a couple inches apart. "What's wrong Britty?"

Brittany doesn't even flinch at the close proximity. "I'm a sad panda."

"How come?"

Even though she _does_ know why, Brittany just shrugs her shoulders, not sure if she wants to talk about it with an eight year old. She doesn't really have anyone else to talk to, but she's not sure Ashley will understand.

"Where's Tana? She always cheers you up!"

"She has lots of homework to do." Then Brittany's stomach feels funny when she thinks about this afternoon and she shakes her head at her sister's suggestion. "And she's why I'm sad."

"Oh." It seems like it's been such a long time since Santana has made Brittany sad that Ashley isn't sure what to do. The couple has had a few arguments since getting together, but that would usually just result in Brittany pouting or being grumpy before they made up a few hours later. She hasn't been sad in a while, and Ashley hates seeing her sister sad.

"Yeah."

Ashley reaches up and holds Brittany's hand with her smaller one. "What happened?"

"I don't think I want to talk about it," the older blonde sighs. She loves her sister for trying, but she'd rather sit and wallow for a bit. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay," the little girl assures her, even if she is disappointed that she can't cheer her sister up. "I'm sorry you're sad, Britty."

Brittany smiles weakly at the girl and squeezes her hand. "Thanks, Ash."

* * *

Santana lets out a frustrated sigh when she hears the banging on her front door. She was just getting into the groove of her math homework after putting it off for days, and since nobody else was home yet, she has to answer it. She tosses her pencil aside and makes her way downstairs, pulling the door open. She doesn't know who she was expecting on the other side, but she's pretty sure an angry looking Ashley Pierce was not on the list.

"Ash? What are you…" She leans over Ashley to get a better look at the road, but doesn't see either of the Pierce vehicles. "How did you get here?"

"I rode my bike," she answers with what Santana thinks is supposed to be a scowl. She glances back at her yard and notices the blonde's bike lying sideways on her lawn.

Santana raises an eyebrow. "Did you ride over here by yourself? You know you're not supposed to go passed the Williams house without me or Britt."

"Well, Britty is too busy being sad," she starts, and the older girl can hear the accusation in her voice clearly. "And you weren't there."

"Why is Brittany sad?"

"Because of you!" Ashley exclaims, stomping her foot for effect.

Santana is confused. She and Brittany didn't get into a fight and she can't think of any other way she could have upset her girlfriend. Brittany hadn't said anything to her after Glee practice when she told her that she couldn't hang out tonight because she had a bunch of homework to finish. "What did _I_ do?"

"I don't know, but you did something and you have to fix it," the tiny blonde tells her, leaving no room for argument. She doesn't like being mad at Santana, and it doesn't happen very often, but she won't let her be mean to Brittany.

"If you don't know _what_ I did, how do you know it's something I did?" Not that it really matters, because if Brittany is sad, she wants to make her feel better, regardless of the reason.

"She told me she was sad because of you," Ashley answers, moving to try to tug Santana out of the house. "Come on, I don't like it when Britty is sad, we have to make her feel better."

"Okay, okay, just let me grab my keys." Santana has no idea what's going on, but she knows better than to argue with the youngest Pierce and she wants to cheer her girl up, so she gets her keys and lets herself be pulled out the door, homework forgotten. "I'll throw your bike in the back and we'll drive over."

* * *

Ashley doesn't even bother getting her bike out of the back of Santana's car, and instead slams her door closed and stands at the front of her house, tapping her foot impatiently as she wants for the older girl to join her. Santana rolls her eyes at the girl's dramatics, before slipping out of her car and making her way towards the Pierce's front door, Ashley leading the way.

"Britty!" the little girl calls as they enter the house. She can see the television is still on from there, so she assumes her sister is still where she left her. "Come on, she's in the living room."

Santana follows the girl silently, still kind of skeptical that Brittany is really upset and this wasn't just Ashley's way of getting her to come over instead of finally finishing her homework. When they get to the living room and she sees Brittany curled up on the couch and staring at the quiet television, she's knows Ashley was telling the truth.

"Britt Britt?" she asks softly, moving into the room and leaving Ashley standing at the door. The older blonde immediately looks up at the voice, clearly surprised by her presence.

"San?"

"Hey, Britts," she greets, sitting down on the edge of the couch near her girlfriend's midsection. She places a hand on her back and rubs gently. "What's going on? Ash said I made you sad?"

Brittany's eyes went to Ashley in the doorway, and her sister just nods towards Santana, encouraging her to tell her what's wrong. She looks back up at the brunette and shakes her head. "No, I said that I was sad because of you, not that you made me sad."

Santana's face scrunches in that adorable way Brittany loves as she tries to follow the blonde's words. "So you're not mad at me?"

"No, _you're _mad at _me_," Brittany clarifies. "And it makes me sad when you're mad at me."

"What?" Santana's hand moves up to rest on the blonde's cheek, and she tries to direct her eyes to meet her's. "Sweetie, I'm not mad at you."

"You're not?"

"No," she assures her. "What made you think that?"

Brittany turns around so she's lying on her back and can get a better look at her girlfriend. "You didn't like my dance today. You said we should be embarrassed."

"Your dance?" It takes a moment for Santana to realize what she's talking about but then it all makes sense. "Oh, no, Britts, that was about Schuester and his ignorance. _He_ offended me, not you."

"But I was part of it," Brittany protests with a pout. "I was part of something that made you mad, so that means you're mad at me."

"But I'm not," she tries to assure her again. She brushes her thumb over Brittany's pout as if it will make it disappear. "I wasn't even really mad at Mr. Schue, I was just annoyed. And it wasn't your fault, you don't know any better."

"But I should," the blond argues, crossing her arms with a huff. She's silent for a moment and averts her eyes. "And I guess I kind of did. But I was just excited that someone finally wanted me to dance with them again that I did it anyway."

That catches Santana's attention. "Wait, what … What do you mean?"

Brittany shrugs. "It's nothing."

"_Britts_."

"It's just …" Brittany struggles with what she wants to say. She's been feeling this way for a while now, but hasn't been able to figure out the best way to bring it up. She thinks maybe that's the real reason she's sad. "I feel like nobody includes me in anything anymore and I don't know why. I guess I don't really care that much about the other guys, but it's kinda sucky when it's you."

"Britt Britt," Santana starts gently, though a bit taken aback by her girlfriend's words. "What are you talking about? What have I left you out of?"

Brittany bites her lip, debating. She eventually pushes herself up so she's sitting across from Santana, just now noticing that Ashley is still standing in the doorway. Brittany thinks she's half being nosy, half being protective. She just thinks it's sweet. She catches her eye and Ashley nods again, urging her on.

"It's probably just in my head, you know how I get things mixed up sometimes," Brittany tries to stall for a moment before her shoulders slump when Santana gives her a pointed look. "Okay, it's just like, I feel like lately, you've been hanging out with everyone else a lot more. And I like that you're nicer to the glee club now, and they're starting to see how awesome I always knew you were, and you're friends with them and everything, but I'm not used to sharing you. And it seems like ever since you started doing things with them more, you do things with them _instead_ of with me."

"Okay," Santana acknowledges, thinking she might see where Brittany is coming from, but she's not sure. She pulls Brittany's hand to hold in her own to let her know that she's following her. "Can you give me a for instance?"

"Just today, your performance with Mr. Martinez," Brittany supplies. "I could have done this week's assignment with you, but you did it with him instead. You said you sang with him because you're both hot, but am I not hot enough then?"

"No, no, Britts, no, of course you are," Santana immediately assures her, shifting closer to her girlfriend on the couch. "Baby, you know I think you're the hottest piece of action in this shithole town." She immediately shoots Ashley a look that tells her to ignore that before continuing. "I just sang with him because I knew it would annoy Mr. Schue. Of course I would've rather sang it with you. Nobody is hotter together than us."

"Then how come we haven't sang together all year?" Brittany challenges. It's not that she doesn't believe Santana, but it's kind of been bugging her. Turns out, there's a lot more things making Brittany sad than she thought. "Last year when I wanted to sing a duet with you, you said no because we didn't kiss because you were in love with me. But you're in love with me now, right? And everyone knows, but you'd still rather sing with Mercedes or Rachel or Mr. Martinez. And you even sang with that 80s movie villain Warbler guy on your underboob mission, which you didn't even tell me about, which sucks the most because you know how much I love your boobs."

Santana thinks she would have laughed if she didn't feel so crappy. "Britts, I-"

"And nobody else wants to sing with me either," the blonde continues. "Or even dance. I just sit in the back of Glee Club and watch everyone else sing with each other or to each other and I just feel everyone forgets I'm even there. Nobody's even noticed that I've barely said anything since Christmas break. So when Mr. Schuester asked me to be part of his song, I said yes, even though I knew it probably wasn't good. It was the first time anyone's asked me to perform with them in a really long time and I missed it. I'm really sorry if I made you feel bad. "

"Sweetie, no, you didn't." Santana already feels horrible enough for not noticing all of this until now, she doesn't need _Brittany_ apologizing to _her_ for it. "You kicked that performance square in the balls, okay? Schuester's only good decision this year has been to ask you to dance with him. And I … God, I'm so bad at this."

That catches Brittany's attention, because she doesn't think there's anything Santana's not awesome at. "At what?"

"At being in a relationship, being a girlfriend," Santana answers, slumping her shoulders and falling against the back of the couch in defeat. She sees Brittany is about to protest and shakes her head. "No, I am. First I totally ignore Ashley and now I'm ignoring you? I suck."

"You don't suck," Brittany promises, untangling her legs so she can shift her body to lean against the other girl. "You're the best girlfriend I've ever had."

Santana cracks a smile and responses as expected. "I'm the only one you've ever had."

"And you're the only one I'm ever gonna have," Brittany responds confidently, and it makes Santana want to wrap the girl up and never let her go. "I'm not mad at you either, San. I love you, and I just miss you is all."

"You shouldn't _have_ to miss me, Britt," the other girl sighs, hating that this has somehow turned into Brittany cheering her up. "I'm your girlfriend, I shouldn't be anywhere else long enough for you to miss me."

"Maybe I'm just being clingy."

Santana's scoffs at the idea that Brittany could ever be clingy, since that would imply it her attention was unwanted. "You're not. I have been spending a lot of time with other people, time that didn't include you, when it could have. You're right. I just, I have to work on balancing it out, and make sure you're not being excluded, because that's the last thing I want, babe."

"I don't want you to feel like you have to hang out with me, San," Brittany frowns.

"Of course I don't feel like that," she promises, pulling the blonde into her side to wrap her arms around her. "I love you and miss you, too. Yeah, it's kind of cool to have other people genuinely want to hang out with me, but I don't like being with any one of them as much as I like being with you."

"It's just like with me," Ashley provides, speaking for the first time since coming into the living room. The couple turns towards her and watch as she makes her way over to join them on the couch, making herself comfortable on Santana's other side. "You said you got caught up in your guys's relationship cause it was new and stuff, but you didn't mean to and you still loved me. You just had to learn to be better at being both, right?"

Santana grins down at the little girl on her side and throws an arm around her shoulder to join the hug. "That's exactly right, munchkin. And I got much better at it, didn't I?"

"She did," Ashley answers, looking at her sister as if she was reassuring her even though Brittany obviously already knew. And the comparison did make her feel better. She knew better than anyone that Santana hadn't meant to neglect Ashley, and she hadn't either, and that it didn't mean Santana loved her sister any less. Santana just has some trouble adapting to new situations, it seems. She can understand that. "She got lots better!"

Santana grins at her and gives her a squeeze before looking back towards her girlfriend, glad to see she looks more relaxed. "I'm so sorry for making you sad. I'm just not used to having real friends other than you, but I'll work on, B, I promise. There's _nobody_ I'd rather do anything with than you."

"Me, too."

Ashley watches as the girls share a soft kiss, mindful of her sitting right there. Once they pull apart, all smiles, she cheers, happy with her work. "You're not sad anymore, right, Britty? I helped fix it?"

"You did," Brittany answers with a smile, and Santana pulls the little girl onto her lap so Brittany can hug her. "Thanks, Ash."

"Yes, thank you," Santana repeats, squeezing the little girl on her lap as well. She knows that if Ashley hadn't brought her over, Brittany probably would've kept hiding how she felt, and it would have only gotten worse, and she'd hate herself for hurting the girl any more than she already had. "I want you to keep telling me if I'm not treating Britt right, okay? Make sure you keep me in line."

"Okay!" she agrees easily, loving the attention. "But I get to be the best man at your wedding, then."

Santana laughs. "I think you mean maid of honor."

"Yeah, that," she corrects with a grin. "I get to be that, okay?"

Santana and Brittany share a smile at the thought. "You got it."

* * *

**Not really happy with the resolution, but it turns out it's harder to put my headcanon into words than I thought. Even though the fic is focused more on Santana's relationship with Ashley (and Brittany, of course), I wanted to show that Ashley cares about Brittany just as much too, and she doesn't necessary love Santana more, you know? I thought about Brittana having some kind of fight and Ashley taking Britt's side or something, but I figured I could use this opportunity to kind of touch on a canon topic that I've been wanting to, while still going for the angle I was going for. Hopefully it was still okay, and you'll still drop me a review!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Sorry it took so long to update! But this is the longest chapter yet, so maybe that'll count for something?** **Thanks so much for all the reviews for the last chapters, and please keep them coming! They really are the motivation to update! Enjoy!**

**PS: Despite my original AN that the chapters wouldn't be interconnected, this chapter has a big connection to something that happened in Chapter 2. It's probably not really needed to read/reread that one to get the gist of what's going on, but if you want to ...  
**

* * *

"So, what exactly is on the agenda for this thing?" Santana asks, looking over the printed out surprise birthday party invitation in her hand. Her and Brittany had just made it quickly on Brittany's laptop, and emailed the invitations to the parents of Ashley's friends from school. Now they're sitting at the kitchen table looking over some homework, while Mrs. Pierce makes dinner.

"We're renting a small bounce castle for the backyard," Mrs. Pierce starts, glancing over at the girls and seeing Brittany immediately perk up. "_For the kids_." Brittany pouts, but doesn't say anything. "And we'll have some games, cake, presents, the usual."

"No sleepover?" Santana questions with a smirk, remembering the disaster that was Ashley's last birthday party, in no small part thanks to her.

Mrs. Pierce glares at her. "Not unless you want to be banned from this house for … Wait, what are you even doing here?"

Santana laughs, knowing the women is just teasing her. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'll be on my best behavior this year, I promise. I've already cost Ashley enough friends."

"Honey," Brittany whines, nudging the girl beside her when she suddenly turns serious and melancholy. "Stop that. I told you that wasn't your fault." Seeing her mother's questioning look, Brittany explains, "Katie."

"Ah," the older woman nods. Santana had told her about that encounter that night, hoping she could straighten it out with the girl's mother, but she hadn't had any luck. "Brittany's right, sweetie. It's not your fault Katie's mother is so narrow minded that she'd keep her daughter from her friend over something like that."

Santana's grip on her pen tightens in anger and frustration, but she nods. "I know. I know you're right, but I still feel like crap every time Ashley wonders why Katie doesn't come over to play anymore."

Mrs. Pierce looks on in sympathy, while her daughter rubs Santana's back. "Well, she got an invitation to the party, so hopefully her mother will unclench long enough to let her come. We'll just have to wait and see."

"So how are we gonna surprise her?" Brittany asks after a moment, jumping to change the subject.

"Do you think you two could keep her out of the house until it's time?"

Santana glanced down at the invitation again. "Everyone's supposed to be here at by 12:30? We could probably take her to a late birthday breakfast? We'll bring her back by 1, to give everyone time to get here?"

"Sounds good," Mrs. Pierce agrees, giving the girls a warm smile. She really appreciates how good both of the girls are with her youngest daughter. "Thanks, girls."

* * *

"Do you just want me to sign your name for you or do you wanna do it yourself?"

Santana glances up from her iPod. "Sign what?"

"Ashley's birthday card," the blonde answers, holding up the card in question so her girlfriend can see. "We still need to wrap her present, but I always forget to sign cards, so I'm doing it now while I remember. It's totally cute, it's got a picture of a cat that looks like Lord Tubbington on it." All of her cards have pictures of cats that look like Lord Tubbington on them.

"Oh," the other girl responds, her eyebrows knitting together in confusion still. "We're just giving her the one card for both our presents?"

Now it's Brittany's turn to be confused. She spins around in her desk chair to face Santana, who's sitting on her bed and going through her iPod, looking for a good song to sing in glee this week. "Wait, you got her a present, too?"

"Uh, yeah," Santana laughs. "That _is_ the expected social protocol."

"I just thought you were gonna put your name on my gift, and we'd say it was from both of us." Brittany doesn't really know why she thought that though, since Santana has always gotten Ashley a separate gift for her birthday.

Santana smiles at the thought. "Like a couples gift?"

Brittany smiles back. "Yeah, I guess. Mom and dad always give birthday and Christmas presents together. I guess I just assumed ..."

"I love the sound of that," Santana answers truthfully, a lifetime of birthdays and Christmases flashing through her mind. She shuffles down the bed to be closer to her girlfriend. "But then Ash only gets one present. I don't think she'd like that."

"That's true," Brittany concedes, imagining the pout her sister would assault them with if they presented her with just one gift instead of the normal two. "Okay, why don't we just do what you said then? We'll give her both gifts together, from both of us, with one card?"

"Sure," she agrees, holding out her hand. "Gimme the card, and I'll sign it now."

Brittany starts handing it over before she thinks of something, and pulls it back again. "Wait, what did you get her? I can't have my name attached to your gift if you got her something lame like socks or books."

Santana rolls her eyes and laughs, snatching the card out of Brittany's hand. "When have I ever gotten Ash anything lame? You know she always likes my presents best."

"Just cause they're from you," the blonde counters, handing the pen over, too. "You could get her a rock and she'd think it was the best thing ever."

"Stop being jealous," Santana teases, knowing Brittany doesn't really mind that Ashley might favor her. Brittany's assured her lots of times that she doesn't care because she thinks Santana is the most awesome too. "It's not a good look on you."

"See, now I know you're not being serious," Brittany responds, a smile starting to form on her lips. "Because you think anything looks good on me."

Santana grins as she quickly signs the card, making a mental note to write something more in it later. "It does." She tosses it aside and quickly reaches forward to grab Brittany's hands, tugging her towards her on the bed. The blonde giggles but lets herself fall on top of Santana, bracing herself with her hands. "Especially me."

"But _I'm_ the one that's on _you_," she points out seriously, causing Santana to playfully roll her eyes again. The brunette waits a moment before quickly rolling them over so that she's on top.

"Better?"

"I don't know." Brittany's smirk grows as she thinks of a response, knowing it'll annoy her girlfriend. "Do you even know what to do up there? It's been so long since you've been a top …"

"Ugh, Britt!" Santana groans, her status as a bottom somewhat of a sore subject for her. Brittany just giggles beneath her, sending her a challenging look, knowing Santana never backs down from a challenge. "Okay, fine, you wanna play like that? Then you better get ready, baby, cause I'm gonna show you just how knowledgeable I am about being on top."

Brittany's last coherent thought as Santana's lips attack her neck, is that her girlfriend is super easy to get into bed.

* * *

"You almost done, kiddo?"

Ashley looks up from her plate to Santana, who's sitting across from her in booth. "Can I get some dessert?"

"There's no dessert with breakfast," Santana answers, and sees Brittany's pout out of the corner of her eye. "Despite Britt's constant protests on the matter."

"It feels inferior to lunch and dinner and I think that's sad."

Ashley rolls her eyes as Santana stares adoringly at her sister. "But it's basically lunch time anyways," she points out, knowing it's after noon already.

"Time is irrelevant," the brunette tells her with a flick of the wrist, snapping her attention from one blonde back to the other. "You had plenty of sugar already, with the disgusting amount of syrup you put on those waffles."

"But it's my _birthdayyyy_," Ashley whines, throwing in the pout she knows Santana can't resist.

Seeing that her girlfriend is already getting ready to succumb to the Pierce pout, Brittany jumps in. "And mom made you a birthday cake. So you'll get lots of junk food later."

"Please, Tana?" Ashley begs, ignoring her sister's words. Santana glances from the pout down to her phone, seeing they still have more than a half hour to kill before they can go back to the house. She imagines Ashley and her little friends will burn off a lot of energy at the party, so it probably wouldn't ruin her appetite.

"Ugh, fine," Santana gives in, putting on a show of being bested. Ashley beams at her, and starts to reach for the dessert menu that's sitting on the table, before Santana snatches it out of her grasp. "But not from here. We'll go get ice cream."

Ashley's eyes light up. "Even better!" She jumps out of the booth and waits for the older girls to do the same, before grabbing their hands and dragging them towards the door, stopping just long enough for Santana to throw some cash on the table to pay their bill.

The girls pile into Santana's car and head over to the local ice cream shop. Santana barely gets her car into a parking spot before Ashley is out of the car and running into the store. Knowing she's fine in there by herself, since they're there so often the entire staff knows them by name, the other girls aren't in a huge rush to get inside.

"You getting anything, B?" Santana asks as Brittany rounds the car to meet her on the sidewalk. She holds out her hand for her girlfriend to take and intertwines their fingers.

Brittany just nods and squeezes Santana's hand as they walk towards the front door. She loves any moment where her and Santana get to be themselves in public, and just likes to soak it up in all of its awesomeness. Santana squeezes back, as she pulls the door open, holding it so Brittany can go in first. Once inside, they find Ashley already placing her order with the familiar server behind the counter.

"We have half an hour to kill, I might as well get something too," Santana muses, eying the choices. She ends up getting the cookies and cream like Brittany does, and the three find an empty table to sit at.

"What do you say to Santana for treating you to breakfast and dessert?"

Ashley quickly swallows her mouthful and smiles at Santana. "Thank you, Tana!"

"You're welcome, sweetie," she replies, reaching over to ruffle the girl's hair. Ashley swats at her hand, but otherwise doesn't protest. "So what do you think you'll get for your birthday?"

"I gave mom a list a couple weeks ago," she shares, between licks at her cone. "I don't remember everything I put on it anymore."

Santana laughs. "At least you'll be surprised then."

Fifty minutes later, the girls are finishing up their cones, and Santana checks the time on her phone for what feels like the hundredth time. The shorter blonde notices and smirks at her. "Got somewhere to be?"

"No," Santana quickly answers. They've managed to go this long without Ashley finding out, which is a miracle considering Brittany's inability to keep a secret, and she's not gonna blow it so close to show time. Ashley gives her what she thinks is a knowing look and looks like she wants to stay something else, but decides against it.

"So, Ash," Brittany interrupts again, veering the conversation to a safer topic. "Bet you can't guess what I got you!"

As Ashley starts playing along and trying to guess what her present it, Santana gets a text from Mrs. Pierce.

_You girls might as well come back now._

Santana raises an eyebrow at the message, since it's fifteen minutes early, and types back.

_You guys are ready? Did Katie come?_

_She didn't come. Nobody came._

Santana's stomach drops to her feet. "What?" Brittany and Ashley throw her matching confused looks, and she waves them off. "Sorry, uh, Puck just texted me something inappropriate." The girls go back to their guessing game and Santana immediately texts Mrs. Pierce back.

_What? Nobody showed up?_

Santana watches on as Ashley laughs in delight at something her sister says to her, and her heart breaks for the girl. She knows she's had some trouble with girls at her school this year, and then there's the whole Katie thing, but she didn't think it was this bad. Her phone vibrates in her hand, and she glances back down.

_Nope, I'll explain later. I'm just so glad Ashley doesn't know about it, so she won't be crushed. You girls come home and we'll open presents and eat cake and make the best of the day._

_We're on our way. _

"Come on," Santana interrupts, pocketing her phone and standing up. "Let's head home."

Brittany immediately senses Santana's mood and glances at her sister. "Hey, can you throw this stuff out for us?" The tiny blonde doesn't question her sister, and gathers up their trash to dispose of. Once her sister is out of earshot, Brittany stands up to join Santana, gently shaking her elbow to get her attention. "What's going on?"

Santana tears her eyes away from Ashley to look at her girlfriend. "Your mom said nobody showed up."

"_What_?"

"Nobody showed up to the party, Britts," Santana repeats quietly, the sadness in her voice obvious. Brittany's eyes move to watch her sister happily skipping over towards the trash, and dumping everything inside.

"Oh no." Brittany tries to think of anything sadder, but can't.

Santana nods in agreement, rubbing a hand up and down Brittany's back. "Tell me about it. But at least it was supposed to be a surprise, so we can just pretend that it was only supposed to be us there, alright? She doesn't have to know and be sad, too. You gotta cheer up, B, or Ash will know something's wrong. Come on."

"Okay," Brittany mumbles, knowing Santana is right. She shakes her head and plasters on a smile as Ashley makes her way back over to them.

* * *

The girls returns to the Pierce house to much fanfare in the form of Mr. and Mrs. Pierce overcompensating for the lack of other guests and fawning all over Ashley the second she walks into the house. All the party decorations that they had set up are taken down, and anything else party related is put away, in the hopes that Ashley will never be the wiser.

Ashley's pretty quiet for most of the afternoon, apart from the excitement of opening her presents, and the squealing she does when she sees the Taylor Swift concert tickets that Santana (and Brittany) got her. Despite the situation, Santana can't help but gloat to Brittany that her present was Ashley's favorite yet again. Ashley even declines the cake offered to her, and instead goes out to jump around by herself on the castle, which they weren't able to get rid of until their rented time is finished.

"This is so sad," Brittany says from the kitchen table, where Santana is sitting beside and her mother is across from her. Her father is in the backyard grilling up dinner. "How could nobody come?"

"Well," Mrs. Pierce starts, but hesitates a bit as her eyes shift over to Santana. The brunette is watching Ashley jump up and down in the backyard with an unreadable expression on her face. She looks up, however, when she notices the older woman pause. Mrs. Pierce debates whether to share her news, knowing Santana will just get down on herself more than she already has.

"Well what?"

Mrs. Pierce sighs. "Well, while you guys were at breakfast, a little after the kids were supposed to get here, I got a call from one of their parents. Apparently Katie's mother is head of the PTA, and brought up the party at their last meeting, and mentioned some of her … concerns, and encouraged the other parents not to let their kids come. The other parents took it as some kind of warning, like if they let them come, they'd be picking a side or something, so they just decided it would be 'best for everyone' if they just sat this one out."

"_Are you fucking kidding me_?" Santana hisses out, her voice trembling with rage. Normally, she'd never even dream of cursing in front of Brittany's mother, but that was the last thing on her mind at the moment.

"San-"

"No, Britt!" Santana cuts her off, far too pissed for even Brittany to calm her down. "This is bullshit! _Best for everyone_? Yeah, everyone except the little girl who isn't allowed to have friends because her sister is dating the town lesbian!"

"Santana, sweetie, I know you're upset-"

"Upset isn't the word I'd use," Santana corrects with a scoff, managing to lower her voice when talking to Mrs. Pierce. "I'm going over to that bitch's house and show her how we do things in Lima Heights!"

"San, no, stop," Brittany pleads, tugging on her arm to get her attention. She actually wouldn't be opposed to Katie's mother getting what's coming to her, but the last thing this situation needs is for Santana to give anyone another reason to keep their kids away from their house. "Please don't get all Scary San on us. I know that lady is mean and she sucks, but yelling at her in Spanish and threatening to cut off all her fingers with the razor blades you keep in your hair isn't going to fix this."

Santana still feels her rage boiling inside of her, but she's never been able to deny a plea from Brittany. She nods and slumps her shoulders, deciding to ignore the rage and focus on the guilt. "This is all my fault."

"It's not," Brittany insists, reaching over to grab a hold of Santana's hand. "_I'm_ Ashley's sister, _I'm_ dating you. If it's your fault, it's mine too."

"I'm the one in the commercial," the other girl counters. "I'm the one that was stupid enough to tell Katie's mother I was dating you."

"Santana, that wasn't stupid, that was very brave of you," Mrs. Pierce cuts in, sending the girl an encouraging smile. "After everything you've been through, having the courage to tell a stranger that you're gay, that was incredibly brave."

"Yeah, and look what happened."

Brittany sends her mother a look, begging her to help some more. "You know, I bet if you explained to Ashley what's going on, she'd understand."

Santana's eyes snap up at Mrs. Pierce's words. "No way, she'd hate me!"

"Ash could never hate you, San," the younger blonde assures her, agreeing with her mother. "You know how much Ashley loves you, how supportive she is of us. She'd be mad at Katie's mom, and at least she'd know Katie isn't ignoring her because of something she did."

"You should talk to her," Mrs. Pierce suggests, nodding towards the backyard, where Ashley has stopped bouncing around, and is just sitting in the middle of the blow up house, picking at the seams of the floor.

"And what? Tell her that she was supposed to have a party but nobody came because her friend's mom is a homophobic bitch?"

Mrs. Pierce cringes. "Well, no. I guess not. But I don't know, just talk to her, see what's wrong with her. She's been really quiet since you guys got back. Maybe she was hoping Katie would call or something. Go find out what's wrong and cheer her up the way only you can."

"Ugh, fine," Santana grumbles, when Brittany nods in agreement. She presses a kiss to Brittany's lips before getting up and heading into the backyard. She passes Mr. Pierce as he heads inside for a bit, leaving the girls alone in the back. She makes her way onto the grasses, towards the castle and stops just short of the entrance. She glances down at her legs, thankful she decided to wear jeans today instead of one of her regular short dresses, and carefully climbs onto the contraption. She remembers jumping around on these things when her and Brittany were younger, but she's not so sure about it now.

Hearing someone coming in, Ashley looks behind her to watch as Santana awkwardly tries to get into the castle. She can't help but laugh as the older girl struggles up the blow up step, and then attempts to crawl towards the middle where she's sitting.

"That's right, laugh it up," Santana moans, crawling over to the little girl in the clumsiest way possible. She wants to be annoyed that she's being laughed at, but she's just happy to see Ashley smiling.

"What are you even doing in here?" the little girl asks once Santana is sitting by her side.

Santana huffs out a breath, exaggerating how much energy she spent getting in there. "Came to check up on you. For being the Birthday Girl, you don't seem too happy. You were fine at breakfast. What happened?"

"Nobody came to the party," she mumbles, too embarrassed to even look at Santana right now. Santana's eyes widen.

"What party?"

Ashley risks at look at the other girl and laughs sadly. "It's okay, Tana, I know there was supposed to be a surprise party today."

"How, how did you know?" If Santana didn't already feel like shit about this whole thing before, knowing Ashley knows about the whole thing makes her feel like shit run over twice.

"Yesterday, a girl in my class told me she was sorry she wasn't allowed to come to my party today," she explains with a shrug. Santana can see her bottom lip start to quiver and she feels a lump starting to form in her own throat. The little girl sniffles and gives her the most distressed look Santana has ever seen. "How come nobody likes me anymore?"

Santana's heart breaks and she immediately pulls the girl onto her lap, wrapping her arms around her protectively. "That's not … Sweetie, no, it's not that at all."

"It _is_," Ashley protests, her little fists rubbing at her eyes to try to stop the tears. "Even Katie doesn't like me anymore."

"_I_ like you," Santana whispers, hoping it'll calm the girl down some. She knows she can't explain everything if Ashley is crying. "I _love _you. You know that. And Britty does, too. Come on, shhh, calm down, sweetie, it's okay."

It takes a few minutes, but eventually Ashley's tears slow down, and apart from the occasional hiccup, she seems to have calmed. Santana keeps her in her lap, though, and continues to hold her tight, running her fingers through soft blonde hair. After a moment, she tries again.

"Sweetheart, there's something I want to tell you, but I'm afraid you might be a bit too young to understand."

"But I'm nine now!"

Despite the situation, Santana can't help but chuckle. "Yes, you are, you're right. Okay, let's have a grown up conversation then, nine year old." She loosens her hold a bit, and twists Ashley so that she can wrap her tiny legs around her waist, as far as they'll go. She keeps her arms locked around the girl's lower back to support her, and Ashley wraps her arms around her neck so she can lean back and face her. She wipes at Ashley's cheeks with her thumbs, drying some of her tears. "I know it's hard to understand, but this isn't about you, okay, kiddo? It's actually my fault."

Ashley's face scrunches up in the cutest little way that makes her look so much like Brittany it makes Santana's heart ache. "How is it your fault?"

"Do you remember when Britts and I first told you and your parents that we were dating? Do you remember why we told you guys when we did?"

Ashley thinks for a second, and then nods. "The commercial the mean man made, right?"

"That's right," Santana nods, squeezing Ashley's hips a bit. "And you also know that we were dating for a while before that, but in secret." Ashley nods, following along. "Well, we kept it a secret for a reason. See, not everyone is okay with us dating. Some people think it's wrong for two girls, or for two boys, to date each other. They think girls should only date boys, and boys should only date girls. And we, _I_ was afraid of what people would say or do if they found out that I was dating Brittany, since she's a girl."

"That's stupid."

Santana cracks a smile, suddenly even more in love with this little girl than she was a second ago. "Yeah, it is. Has anyone told you about my abuela? My grandmother?" Ashley shakes her head this time. "Before the commercial aired, when we were telling everyone about us, I told my abuela, too and she didn't think it was right for us to be together. Or, at least, to tell people we were. And she felt so strongly about that, that she hasn't talked to me since."

"Your grandma doesn't like you anymore, just cause of Britty?" Ashley asks in a small voice, trying to imagine what it would be like if her grandma didn't like her anymore. Santana nods her head, and Ashley can tell she's sad, so she gives her a big hug. "I'm sorry, Tana."

"Thanks, but it's okay," she tells her, not wanting this to get off track. She pulls back a little, so that Ashley will do the same. She reaches a hand up to brush some of the hair out of Ashley's eyes. "The thing is, Katie's mom, she saw the commercial, too. And that day I picked you up, when those girls were teasing you? I ran into her when I asked Katie where you were, and I mentioned that I was dating Britty. She didn't like that very much."

The wheels start to turn in Ashley's head, but it still doesn't make sense to her. "But, how come Katie can't come over then?"

"Her mother doesn't like me," Santana tries to explain, knowing the woman's warped logic will be hard for a kid to understand. Hell, _she_ doesn't even understand what Katie's mother is thinking. "Or Brittany, probably, and doesn't like us being together. And so she doesn't want Katie to be around us, I guess. She thinks we'll be bad for Katie."

"But you and Britty are the best," Ashley argues, starting to get angry. "And Katie loved hanging out with you guys, too! You'd always play with us, or take us to the park or to get ice cream and stuff!"

Santana is touched at the reassurance, but it doesn't really help to ease her guilt. "People like Katie's mom are stubborn, kiddo. They have their beliefs and it's hard to change them. And sometimes they'll share them with other people, like what happened today. Your mom said that Katie's mom told some other parents about her opinions, and that's why the kids didn't come today. It was because of me, not you. You're awesome, Ash, and if it weren't for me, I bet everyone would've come to celebrate with you."

Ashley huffs in annoyance at Santana's words. "Then I'm glad they didn't! If they can't be my friends because you're my friend, then I don't want to be friends with them! I'd rather hang out with you and Britty anyway."

"Really?" She's not really sure how this little girl exists. But then she remembers she's related to Brittany, and thinks she shouldn't be surprised at all.

"Totally," the blonde promises. "You're my best friend, Tana, remember? Best friends are the most important friends."

Santana shuts her eyes and shakes her head, beyond touched. It isn't until she feels Ashley's hands on her face that she realizes she might be crying a bit. She gives Ashley a watery smile and takes a hold of hands, blowing a raspberry on one of her palms to lighten the mood. "I think you might be the most amazing kid in the whole world, you know that?"

"Duh," Ashley replies with a roll of her eyes, channeling her best Santana. She grins when she gets the desired laugh she was going for. "It's not your fault, Tana. It's Katie's mom's fault, and your grandma's and anyone else that has a problem with you dating Britty. Because they don't know how good you are to Britty, and how much you love each other. That's all that matters, I think."

"She's totally right, San," comes a voice from behind them. The girls turn around to find Brittany climbing into the castle, and walking over towards them with ease. "That means that me, my mom and Ashley have all told you it's not your fault. I think that means you have to believe us now, cause we're geniuses, right?"

Santana tilts her head backwards to look up at her girlfriend and give her a sheepish smile. "Well, I can't argue with logic like that, now can I?"

"Nope." She crouches down to kiss Santana before shooting back up into a huge jump, that sends Santana and Ashley falling over when she lands right beside them.

"Britty!" Ashley squeals when she gets trapped under Santana.

"Careful, Britt," Santana laughs, rolling off her. "I'm gonna smother the poor child."

"Oops?" she replies with a grin, obviously not sorry at all. Santana and Ashley share a look before they both charge at Brittany, and they all land in a giggling pile together.

The three of them spend the rest of the afternoon bouncing around and laughing together, content to ignore the rest of the world for now.

* * *

**I was actually planning on updating with a different plot and saving this one for later, but then this happened to the little girl that lives next door (the no kids coming to her party in general thing), and it made me want to write this now. Hope you enjoyed it! Let me know!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Wow, I had no idea it had been so long since my last chapter, I'm so sorry! I have no excuses, just didn't feel like writing. I ended up forcing this one out, and it really, really shows, so I apologizes. It kind of went in completely random places that weren't really planned, but hopefully it's still readable. It's the longest chapter yet, so it would suck if it's totally horrible.** **Your reviews definitely motivate me to keep going (not that I show this by taking so long to update), so please keep them coming.**

**Disclaimer: I've only ever been to one wedding in my life, so I kind of based the schedule and events on that one, so if it seems weird for regular wedding going ons or something, my bad. Oh, and I laughed at a review that mentioned Ashley is a cockblock for Brittana. I promise she's not, and they get plenty of time alone together. It's just that the plot/focus of this fic is the three of them and their dynamic together, so while I do make sure there's at least one solo Brittana scene in each chapter, Ashley will be present a lot, obviously.  
**

* * *

"You promise this doesn't look silly?" Brittany asks, looking down at the dress she's trying on for the tenth time, hoping it'll look better the more times she wears it.

Santana smiles at her from her spot sprawled out the bed. "It's not the best dress, I'll grant you, but you totally pull it off. I've seen worse bridesmaids dresses. Like Berry's."

"I liked those ones!"

"Just because they were pink."

"And you only hated them because they were pink," Brittany counters, sticking her tongue out at her girlfriend. Santana shrugs her shoulders in acknowledgement, admitting the blonde was right. Though the lack of visible cleavage might have had something to do with it, too. "Why can't this one be pink?"

"Because Haley didn't want them to look the same as the ones Melissa had last year at her wedding, remember?" She's heard this conversation between Brittany and Mrs. Pierce enough times to know all the details and rationale for every decision Brittany's cousin Haley had made about her wedding. "Don't worry, babe. I'll wear a green dress so we'll match."

Brittany sighs and looks at herself in the mirror one last time before she starts taking it off again. "I keep telling you that you don't have to come this weekend. I'll barely even get a chance to see you."

Santana has a long history of going to Pierce family weddings. Both sides of Brittany's family are pretty large, and between the two, there seems to be at least one cousin getting married every year. Sometimes it's one that Santana knows well, and sometimes it's not, but over the years, Santana has only missed one wedding, and only because she had the flu.

Weddings can be really long and boring, especially when there aren't any other kids there, so Santana mostly goes to keep Brittany entertained throughout the grueling event. However, this time, Brittany's cousin had asked her to be in the wedding party, so the girls wouldn't even get to spend much time together with all the bridesmaid duties Brittany was going to be doing. So the blonde thought it was kind of pointless for Santana to come and subject herself to all that for no reason.

"It's cool," Santana answers, watching as the blonde pulls some tiny shorts up gorgeous legs. "Ash needs some company, too, right? Besides, Haley's probably my favorite of your cousins, and she even put my name on your family's invitation."

"She _does_ really like you," Brittany agrees, sitting down beside her girlfriend as she pulls a shirt on. Santana rolls over onto her back so she's looking up at the other girl. "You know, she called me as soon as her mom told her about us, after we came out?"

"Yeah?" Santana never really thought about how everyone in Brittany's extended family found out about them, or if they even did. It _was_ a really big family, and while they were close enough to get invites to weddings, she wasn't sure what the protocol for that kind of thing was, since her family was pretty small. She thinks maybe it was like a game of telephone, and Mr. Pierce just told one sister, and then it got passed along through the endless string of relatives until everyone knew. "What'd she say?"

"She was super happy for us," Brittany shares, leaning over and propping herself up over Santana's body, most of her weight leaning on her arm that was on the other side of the brunette's body. She brings her other hand up to play with some of Santana's hair that's sprawled out on her comforter. "Said she always had a feeling about us, and wanted to know all the details. And that she better be a bridesmaid at the wedding."

Santana laughs, and gets that familiar fluttering feeling in her stomach that's a little bit panic, but mostly pure happiness. She imagines sometime in the future, when the entire Pierce family gathers for _their_ wedding, and that feeling just gets bigger. "So now we already have a maid of honor _and_ a bridesmaid?"

"Plus all the girls from glee," Brittany reminds her. Santana isn't really sure she plans on keeping in touch with everyone in glee after high school, but she can't really think of anyone else they'd ask.

"At least Q and Wheezy," she compromises. "We'll see about Girl Chang and Sugar. Hell no to Berry, though. That hobbit is not ruining our wedding pictures."

Brittany laughs, but doesn't argue. She lets her hand give, so that her weight is now resting on Santana's stomach, and props herself up on her elbow instead. "So you're sure you want to come? Even though I won't be able to sneak champagne and make fun of everyone from the groom's side with you? I still think you'll be bored."

"Positive," Santana promises, taking the hand that's been playing with her hair and intertwining their fingers. "I wanna see Haley. Ash will be bored out of her mind, so I'll entertain her and keep her out of your parents' hair." Santana smiles, and tugs on the blonde's hand, pulling her closer. "Besides, you know I never pass up a chance to dance with you."

"I _am_ a very good dancer," Brittany smirks, shifting up so she's close enough to drop a soft kiss against Santana's lips.

"Mmm, the best," Santana mumbles against the blonde's lips, looking forward to wasting the rest of the afternoon away with her girlfriend.

* * *

The night before the wedding, Mrs. Pierce drives Brittany up to her cousin's house to sleep over, since the bridal party has a lot to do early the next morning to get ready for the wedding. Haley invites Santana to come along, but the brunette declines, not wanting to crash on their bonding or whatever it is they're going to be doing. Instead, she has a movie night with Ashley and goes to bed early, knowing she'll have a bit of trouble falling asleep in Brittany's bed alone.

She wakes up to Mr. Pierce cooking one of his usual big weekend breakfasts and he instructs her and Ashley to eat a lot, reminding them that dinner at the wedding will probably be something fancy and gross they won't want to eat. After breakfast, Santana helps Ashley get ready before getting in her own dress and doing her hair and make up. They end up leaving fifteen minutes later than planned, but Mr. Pierce makes good time, and they get to the wedding hall in less than an hour, with plenty of time to spare before the ceremony starts.

As soon as they enter the hall, they're met with hugs from the mother of the bride. "Hello, beautiful people, don't you all look stunning!"

"Hi, Aunt Ellie!" Ashley greets, folding her hands in front of her so she looks proper in her fancy dress. Santana stands behind her, her hands resting on the little girl's shoulders. She's been around Brittany's family for as long as she can remember, and she's pretty familiar with this particular aunt, but she always feels a bit out of place at these things at first. "Like my dress? Tana helped me pick it out."

"It's gorgeous, sweetie," she gushes, sweeping some of Ashley's bangs out of her eyes and sending Santana a warm smile. "I'm so glad you came, Santana."

"Where's that crazy wife of mine?" Mr. Pierce asks after not seeing her anywhere.

"She's somewhere talking to the photographer," she answers her brother, gesturing to her left before turning to Santana. "And yours is in the back, helping the others make sure everything is ready, so just head back there."

Thrown by the wife reference, Santana starts shaking her head. "No, I don't want to interrupt or anything…"

"Don't be silly, Haley made me promise to send you back when you got here."

Ashley can sense her hesitation, so she takes a hold of one of Santana's hands. "Come on, Tana, let's go find Britty."

The two walk hand in hand towards the back, greeting a few family members on their way, and find the room the bridal party is waiting in. Santana knocks, not wanting to walk in on anyone changing, and waits until they're called in. They enter to find Haley standing in the middle of the room in her wedding dress, with some of her bridesmaids fussing around her, making sure everything is in place.

"Satan!" Haley greets with a big smile, waving her and Ashley into the room. "Hey, squirt."

Ashley lets go of Santana's hand and runs over to give the bride a big hug, while her sister makes her way over to take her place. "You're here."

"Of course." Santana playfully rolls her eyes as if to say 'duh', and gives her girlfriend a quick peck on the lips, not caring that she doesn't know half the people in the room. "You look beautiful."

"So do you," Brittany tells her, having not known what Santana was planning on wearing. Just as she promised, they matched perfectly and she suddenly didn't mind her not so pretty bridesmaids dress anymore. "Come on, let me introduce you to everyone."

"Yeah, okay." Santana makes a face, not a fan of first meetings, but doesn't put up a fight when Brittany takes her hand and brings her further into the room.

"You already know Laura," Brittany starts, gesturing to her cousin on her left. Santana nodds to the blonde in acknowledgement. She was Haley's sister. "And these are Haley's best friend's Brooke and Melanie. Guys, this is my gorgeous girlfriend, Santana."

The two girls give her welcoming smiles and shake her hand. "With the way Brittany kept gushing about you last night, we couldn't wait to meet you." Santana glances at the blonde beside her, who just smiles and shrugs, not at all embarrassed for her to know she enjoys talking about her.

"Yeah, it was really annoying," Haley cuts in, holding her arms open and motioning for Santana to come give her a hug. "You'd think it was the night before _her_ wedding, the way she talked about you."

Now Brittany was starting to feel a bit embarrassed. So she likes to brag about the fact that she had the best girlfriend in the world. Sue her. "Not my fault my girlfriend is better than your soon to be husband."

"Brat," Haley laughs, letting the comment go and pulling the brunette into a hug. "It's good to see you, Satan." She pulls back to get a look at the girl. "Thank you for wearing a more appropriate dress than the one you wore to Melissa's wedding."

Santana blushes a little, remembering the reveling dress she had worn the previous year, and the way she enjoyed all the scandalized looks she got from the groom's side. The Pierces' didn't really mind, though. They were more than used to her old antics and they weren't really a judgmental group of people. But she's grown a lot since then, and wearing that type of dress to get attention didn't even cross her mind.

"Didn't want to show you up or anything," Santana teases, releasing the older girl from her hold. Haley is all blonde and blue eyes, with a friendly face, just like all her relatives, and Santana always thought of her as a really cool older sister growing up. They haven't seen each other as much in the past few years, but she's someone Santana likes and respects, and she's glad to see she's happy.

"You just being here might do that," Haley gushes, punching one of her cheeks before her hand is squatted away. "Look at how gorgeous you are. You're glowing. Being honest and in love looks great on you."

Santana shares a look with her girlfriend, who beams at her, then bows her head. "Thanks, Hales. You look great too. Love the dress. Much better than the bridesmaids ones."

"San," Brittany whispers, nudging her in the side.

"I'll let that one slide," the older girl laughs, stepping back into her place, so her friends can continue to fuss over her. "But thank you for coming, I was worried you wouldn't since I'll be keeping your girl busy all night."

"That's okay," Santana replies, waving it off. She pulls Ashley into her side and squeezes the girl's shoulder. "I got my other girl to entertain me. I'm on Ashley duty tonight."

Haley raises an eyebrow. "Well, that's a troublesome twosome if I ever saw one."

Before either girl has a chance to defend themselves, there's a knock at the door, and Ellie Pierce steps inside, letting them know they have forty-five minutes until show time.

"Come on, Ash," Santana speaks, holding her hand out for her to take. "Let's leave these chicks to the girlie stuff, and we'll go say explore and make sure we get good seats."

Ashley nods and Brittany walks them to the door, stopping before they leave. "Daniel is coming, and he knows we're together, so if he hits on you, Haley says you have permission to go Lima Heights on him."

Santana rolls her eyes and cringes, just thinking about Brittany's creepy step-cousin. He was around their age, and his father had married into the family a couple years ago, and he's been hitting on her ever since. "Tell Haley thanks, but I'll try to control myself."

"Good luck with that," the blonde teases, giving her a quick peek on the lips and a slap on the ass, before pushing her and Ashley out the door.

* * *

Santana and Ashley sit beside Mr. and Mrs. Pierce at the end of the third row of seats, giving them a perfect view of Brittany. Santana is pretty sure the ceremony goes off without a hitch, but she is too busy staring at her stunning girlfriend to really notice much of anything else that's happening. Though she does pay attention long enough to note that Haley makes a beautiful bride and the groom looks decent enough. Before she knows it, everyone is starting to stand up and heading towards the back, signaling the end of the ceremony.

She takes Ashley's hand so she doesn't get lost in the crowd, and the two of them navigate through relatives to find some place to sit and wait. They've all been instructed to hang out for a bit, while the photographer takes the wedding party out to take their wedding pictures. The room is barely large enough to hold the whole Pierce clan, let alone another family and friends, so when Santana is only able to find one empty chair left in the corner of the room, she sits down and pulls Ashley up onto her lap, careful not to mess up either of their dresses. Santana vaguely recognizes the man sitting to their left as one of Mr. Pierce's brothers in law, but she doesn't know the two women to their right, so she assumes they must be on the groom's side.

"Well, that's a very pretty dress," one of the women comments, her tone making it obvious that her comment was directed at Ashley.

The little girl smiles, but doesn't say anything until Santana gives her waist a light squeeze. "Thank you. Santana helped me pick it out."

"I'm Santana," she introduces herself when the woman looks confused. She nods in understanding, giving Santana a smile too. "Are you guys with the groom?"

"I'm his sister, Bridget," the one furthest away answers, then points to the other. "And this is our cousin, Kat. You guys are with the bride, I assume?"

"Haley's my cousin," Ashley tells them proudly. They both smile at her and shift focus to Santana, who's trying to decide how to explain her presence. Last time she came out to someone who didn't already know, Ashley became the social pariah of Lima Elementary.

She doubts she'll ever even see these chicks again, though, so she goes for it. "I'm actually dating one of the bridesmaids, so I'm just a plus one."

"She's dating my sister," Ashley explains, narrowing her eyes at them. "And that's allowed. A girl can date another girl if they love each other, and Britty and Tana love each other as much as my mom and dad do, so it you have a problem with that, than I'll go all Lima Heights on your-"

"Whoa, whoa," Santana cuts her off with a laugh, tightening her hold on the little girl. She appreciates the gesture more than she can say, but she doesn't think it's needed today. "Chill out, Lil' Snix, it's okay. Give them a chance to react before you bring out the claws."

"Sorry," she mumbles, embarrassed by her outburst. She's just so used to kids at school saying mean things about them that she automatically gets defensive, assuming someone is going to say something mean. She looks up at the surprised women and offers them a shy smile. "I'm sorry."

Kat just laughs and reaches over to pat Ashley on the knee. "It's okay, sweetie. It's totally cool with us. Right, Bridge?"

"Totally."

Santana offers them a smile, not knowing what else to say. Her first instinct is to thank them, but thanking them for not being assholes about something that's none of their business doesn't really make sense to her, so she refrains. Instead, she just sits back and listens as Ashley continues the conversation.

* * *

The four of them end up sitting at the same table during the reception. While most of the tables are split based on which side of the wedding they're on, all the 'kids' (which is really just anyone under thirty that isn't married) are grouped together at a large table at the back of the room. Other than Daniel, who Santana made sure was on the opposite end of the table; she and Ashley are the youngest ones there.

"This is gross," Ashley whispers to Santana, poking the food around her plate.

Santana smirks at the look of disgust on Ashley's face. "Yeah, it is. And this is only the appetizer."

"Will the rest of dinner be this gross?" Santana leans back in her chair, catching a glimpse of one of the catering tables around the corner. She can't tell what they're preparing, but she can tell it doesn't look appealing.

"Afraid so, kid."

Ashley pouts, and drops her fork. "But I'm hungry and Lord Tubbington's cat food probably tastes better than this stuff."

"What do you want me to do about it?" Santana asks with a shrug.

"Can't we go somewhere else for dinner? We passed a McDonalds on the way here."

"We can't just leave!"

Ashley nods towards the table her parents are sitting at. "Go ask then."

Santana waits until the servers start coming around to gather people's plates and other people start milling around a bit, before she stands up and makes her way over to where the Pierces are sitting. Everyone at the table greets her loudly, and she returns it with a shy wave and smile. "Hey, everyone."

"What's up, sweetie?" Mrs. Pierce asks, turning in her chair to give Santana her full attention.

"Ash hates the food," she shares with a laugh, not mentioning that she shares her opinion. When Mrs. Pierce raises an eyebrow, and rolls her eyes. "Okay, so do I. But she's the one that's apparently starving. She wanted me to ask if we could go to the McDonalds around the corner to get something else."

Mr. Pierce chuckles, having known this was going to happen. "That's fine with us. You can take the car if you want."

"Just let Haley know you're leaving for a bit," Mrs. Piece suggests as her husband hands over the car keys.

Santana nods, and glances towards the table the bridal party is sitting at, and sees that Brittany has been watching her. She gives the Pierces a smile and quickly makes her way over to the table in the middle of the room. As soon as she reaches the table, Brittany grabs her hand, pulling her around the side so she can hug her around her waist.

"Hey, baby," Santana speaks, carefully running her fingers over Brittany's hair.

"I miss you," Brittany mumbles, her words muffled. "You're so far away."

The brunette laughs and squeezes her shoulder. "I know, we miss you, too. It's weird being at a wedding and not having to dodge the food you and Ashley are throwing at each other while I'm stuck between you."

"We'll make it up to you tomorrow at breakfast," the blonde promises, pulling away from her girlfriend and looking up at her. "What were you doing over there?"

"Ash is hungry and would apparently rather eat Tubbs' food than this stuff. So I think we're gonna go to Micky D's and get something else to eat. I'm just gonna let Haley know."

Brittany's eyes light up. "Bring me back a Happy Meal?"

"Of course," Santana promises. She knew Brittany wasn't enjoying the food either. She caresses Brittany's cheek for a moment and gives her a smile, then moves over to talk to the bride. "Hey, Hales. Do you mind if Ash and I go get something a bit more appetizing to eat?"

Haley smirks and nods. "That's fine. We're doing speeches between the courses, so we'll probably be eating for another hour or so, if you wanna stay out till then. But you have to be back for cake and dancing."

"Okay, sounds good," she agrees, bending down to give the bride a quick hug.

"And make sure not to mess up that dress, cause I want to get a picture with you and Britt after, okay?" Santana agrees, and after a quick trip back to her girlfriend, she heads back over to get Ashley.

* * *

"Better?"

"Much," Ashley answers with an emphatic nod, taking another bite of her burger. Santana laughs at her enthusiasm, and takes a sip of her Coke.

"So, Haley said that we have about an hour to kill before the cake comes," she informs her, picking up a fry to pop in her mouth. "So do you wanna just hang out here once you're finished dinner? Britt wanted us to bring her back a Happy Meal, so we'll get that before we leave."

The tiny blonde nods, and goes back to eating. Santana glances around the restaurant, and it's pretty empty, considering it's dinner time, but they still stick out like sore thumbs in their fancy dresses. She doesn't care how weird they look, though. Ashley is happy, and that's all that matters.

"Tana?"

"Yeah, squirt?"

"Can you and Britty serve McDonalds at your wedding?"

"Sure. I bet Britts would love that."

Ashley nods her head, satisfied. Santana watches her finish her burger, her eyebrows knitted up like she's pondering something. She waits until it's done before she asks, "Am I related to Kat and Bridget now?"

"Don't think so," Santana tells her, playing with her straw.

"Am I related to Chris?"

Santana tilts her head, thinking. "Yeah, I guess so. He's your second cousin or cousin-in-law or something, maybe."

"Cool," the girl comments with a smile. She moves to start on her fries when a thought comes to her. "So, when you and Britty get married, you'll be my sister-in-law?"

"Yep," Santana answers, a huge grin spreading across her face at the thought. She's loved this little girl like she was her little sister since the day she was born, but the idea of it being official feels amazing. She's always wanted to marry Brittany because she's never, and will never, want anyone else, but she's never thought of all the other amazing things, amazing _people_, she'd get to be with forever, too. She thinks about Mr. Pierce making her breakfast this morning, of the welcoming hugs she received from all the Pierces at the wedding, how Haley has been going out of her way to make her feel included. She thinks about how she told Kat and Bridget earlier that she was Brittany's plus one, when she's felt like part of the family all day. "You okay with that?"

"Totally," Ashley beams, ripping a fry apart and popping half of it into her mouth. "You're already like my big sister anyway. So it won't be much different, right?" Ashley is too distracted with playing with her food to notice the way Santana's face softens at her words, displaying just how touched she is. "But it'll be cool to be able to call you that."

"Have I ever told you that you're the greatest kid on the planet?"

Ashley rolls her eyes playfully. "Like every day. It's almost annoying"

"Well, then stop being so amazing, and I'll stop annoying you."

"Impossible," she tells her, giving her an exaggerated smile. "If I'm so amazing, can I get a McFlurry?"

"They're serving cake when we get back," Santana answers, crumpling up her wrapper and tossing it onto the tray, done with her meal. "I promise to get you some ice cream tomorrow though, okay?"

Ashley knows Santana never breaks a promise, at least not to her, so she accepts it and continues eating. "Two scoops. Cause I'm extra awesome."

Santana chuckles, checking her watch. "Alright, Miss Awesome, finish your fries so we can get Britt's Happy Meal and head back to the wedding hall before they cut the cake."

"Yes, ma'am." Ashley quickly shoves her last few fries into her mouth, before emptying the last of her drink. "Done!"

Santana slips out of the booth, and Ashley quickly follows. "Hey, wait," Santana starts, tugging slightly on the strap of Ashley's dress when she starts moving to toss away their garbage. The little girl looks up at her expectantly. "Come here, give me hug for being so awesome."

Ashley doesn't question it, used to Santana's random moments of sappiness lately, and wraps her little arms around the older girl's waist, holding on tight. "You're weird."

"I'll fit right in with you crazy Pierces then, won't I?"

"You already fit in, Tana," Ashley tells her like it's the most obvious thing in the world. "You've been part of the family longer than even me!"

Santana squeezes her eyes shut, and shakes her head. "Ash." She pulls back to cup both of the blonde's cheeks, gazing down at her with all the love she has for her. "You have _got_ to stop saying stuff like that."

"Stuff like what?" the girl asks, genuinely confused by her reaction.

"Nevermind," the brunette tells her, brushing her thumb over Ashley's cheek once more before pulling away. "Let's go order, you little brat."

* * *

After filling themselves up with cake, and then dancing up a storm to burn it off, Santana, Brittany and Ashley are dead tired, and they go in search of some place to rest. Brittany mentions that the room they were getting ready in earlier had couches, and the trio head in that direction. They ignore the mess in the room and go straight for the couch. Santana collapses in the middle, and the two blondes fall on either side of her.

"I'm tired," Brittany sighs, kicking off her heels and pulling her legs up to rest underneath her.

"You've been up since the crack of dawn," Santana reminds her, looping her arm around Brittany and pulling her tightly against her side. "I'll let you sleep all day tomorrow, okay?"

Brittany hums in agreement, resting her head against her girlfriend's chest. Santana feels Ashley shuffling on her other side, and turns just in time to see the little girl curl up and rest her head on her lap. Given the time, Santana figures all the official wedding stuff is done, so she carefully takes the ties and clips out of Ashley's hair, releasing it from its confines. She knows she gets a headache if her hair is pulled too tight for too long.

"Thanks, Tana," she mumbles, her voice trailing off as she starts to fall asleep.

"Looks like someone's even more tired than you, Britts."

Brittany brushes some of the hair out of her sister's face to see that her eyes are in fact closed. "What a baby."

"Well, she is really tiny," Santana reminds her, absentmindedly rubbing soothing circles on Ashley's back. "Try to stay away, okay? I can't carry you both out to the car."

"I'll try," the blonde promises, dropping a kiss to her girlfriend's collarbone. There isn't a place in the world that's more comfortable to her than pressed against Santana, but she fights her hardest to keep her eyes open. "So did you have fun today? Even though we couldn't hang out?"

"Yeah," she answers, smiling down at the girl in her lap when she remembers their conversation earlier. "The little munchkin was good company."

Brittany smiles, glad to hear it. She really loves Santana and Ashley together. She likes knowing there's someone else in the world that sees Santana as the amazing person she is and loves her almost as much as she does. She feels a surge of affection for her little sister, and reaches out to play with her hair, just to feel close to her.

The three of them sit in silence, cuddled together, until Brittany starts feeling herself drifting off to sleep. She blinks a few times to fight the sleep away, and starts to talk again to keep herself awake. "Everyone kept asking when our wedding is gonna be."

"Yeah? What'd you say?"

"Just that I didn't know," Brittany quickly answers, not being able to read Santana's tone. She pulls away slightly, resting her cheek against the girl's shoulder, so she can see her face. "I mean, I know we were joking about it before, but I don't want you to freak out or anything."

Santana just smiles, turning her head to press her lips to the blonde's forehead. "Don't worry, I'm not. I'm pretty sure I was planning our wedding in the second grade."

"Really?"

"I bet you anything there are plans for a Lizzie McGuire themed wedding, catered by Breadstix, with a totally outdated set list in one of my old diaries or something."

Brittany's face lights up. "That sounds totally awesome!"

"I promise our wedding will be awesome," Santana vows, her eyes sparkling. "Nothing boring and traditional, no offense to Haley. It'll be something totally us, okay?" Brittany nods, her eyes reflecting that same sparkle right back the brunette. "Our wedding is gonna be totally awesome, but it's what comes after the wedding that I'm really looking forward to."

"The honeymoon?"

"No," Santana laughs, but then rethinks it. "Well, okay, yeah, _definitely_ the honeymoon, too. But I meant marriage. Our wedding day will be unbelievable and like 20 years in the making, but it's the stuff that comes after that, that will really be amazing. The house, the joint bank accounts, the in-laws, the family get togethers, the _kids. _The rest of our lives, _together_. Our wedding will obviously be the event of the century, but I can't wait to have a _marriage_ with you, Britts."

Brittany's eyes shine with unshed tears and she tries to swallow past the lump in her throat, but can't. She shifts closer before she hears Ashley mumble something in her sleep. "If my little sister wasn't sleeping on top of you right now, I would so be smothering you in sweet lady kisses right now."

"Just give me some in PG rated places then," she counters, pointing to her lips. Brittany doesn't waste a moment pressing their lips together, the thought of a lifetime of kisses making it taste sweeter than it ever has before.

* * *

**So yeah, I guess that's what happens when I only have a really vague idea of a theme for a chapter! Hope you enjoyed it anyway and will review! I also wanted to ask a question! My original plan was just going to be some one-shots about the three of them during Brittana's senior year, after they were out, and I was just going to avoid any discussion about the Brittany failing mess, but I'm thinking about some plots that could happen when Ashley is a bit older, and Brittana would be in college or even out of. So I was wondering if people would be interested in reading those kinds of plots, or if you'd prefer I kept it in this timeline? I wouldn't abandon this timeline at all, I'd probably go back and forth and just leave them unconnected, though. Let me know!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Well, hello! It's been forever since an update and I have no excuse, other than the show itself turned me off lately, for obvious reasons, and I didn't have any motivation to write. Originally I was going to say that I don't even come with a long update to make up for it, but this ended up being longer than I thought it would be. This chapter is kind of weird, in the way that there isn't really a set storyline or purpose to it. In the past chapters, there's been a central idea or plot to the chapter, but this one is kind of all over the place. It's really the combination of a few ideas I've had for separate chapters, that I ended up decided weren't enough to revolve a whole chapter around, so they're kind of all crammed into this one. There's also some set up for future ideas and storylines in here too, that I plan on writing about, but of course might not end up doing, so we'll see. **

**You probably noticed I uploaded a poster or whatever it is for the story. I usually hate casting original characters, and that random girl I found through Google Images isn't necessarily Ashley, but she was the closest one I could find that matched the image in my head. Anyway, I hope you enjoy and please review! Your reviews last chapter were awesome and they do really motivate me to keep going, even if I don't show that in a timely manner. And please do ignore anything about realistic soccer season, because yeah.  
**

* * *

"So are you guys going tomorrow night?" Puck asks, throwing himself into one of the chairs behind Brittany and Santana in the choir room.

Santana makes a face and just barely turns around in her seat to give Puck the minimum amount of attention required for this conversation. "Going where?"

"You didn't hear?" Artie asks, rolling up into his designated spot and leaning over to remain part of the conversation.

"Obviously not, Wheels," she answers, but without much bite. Santana doesn't really know how she feels about him, since she figures she's supposed to hate him on principle, but she finds he's much less annoying now that he's nowhere near Brittany. Judging by the lack of cowering under her glare, Artie is over it all too. "Well?"

"Rachel's throwing another party," Puck informs them. "She says no alcohol this time, but I'm totally loading up my truck with six packs and I'll convince her. And if not, I'll just spike whatever tooty-fruity drink she ends up surviving."

Artie nods his head victoriously. "It'll be off the hook, yo."

"As much as I'd like to see which comically unavailable person Berry makes out with and subsequently falls in love with this time, we have plans."

"We do?"

Santana turns to her girlfriend and gives her a soft smile and nudges her shoulder. "We have Ashley's soccer tournament, remember? We promised we'd take her."

"Oh, right," the blonde replies, remembering how Ashley pouted when they missed her last game until they gave in and promised to attend her day long tournament that weekend. "That won't be done in time?"

"We'll probably be tired, babe," Santana reminds her. "It starts at 9, and could go all day." Brittany pouts, and it doesn't take long until Santana relents. She turns back towards the boys and rolls her eyes. "We'll see."

Puck and Artie high five in celebration. "Sweet! It's not a party without Britt getting naked!"

"I will castrate you, Puckerman."

Before Santana has time to get out of her seat to make good on her threat, more glee club members come filing in, and fill up the chairs, throwing greetings to the members already there. It isn't long before Rachel is standing in front of them, looking like she's ready to give some kind of presentation.

"Brittany, Santana," she begins, pushing her bangs out of her face. "As I'm sure Noah and Artie have already informed you, I am hosting another get together at my house tomorrow evening. However, in respect to my role as the hostess, I would also like to extend a formal invitation to the both of you. Due to the colossal mishap that resulted from my last shindig, my dads have prohibited any and all consumption of alcohol, but I can assure you that there will be a large array of other, age appropriate beverages to choose from. The fun will start at 7 o'clock sharp, and with senior year rapidly coming to a close, I think it would be nice if all of our group-"

Santana lets out an exaggerated groan, effectively silencing the yammering girl. "Save your breath, Barbra. Britts and I already have plans, but we'll try to make it, okay?"

"Santana," the other girl starts, and Santana can already hear the condescension reeking from her voice. It takes all of her will power not to scowl at her. "When someone requests an RSVP, it's quite rude to give such a noncommittal answer."

"We're taking my sister to her soccer tournament," Brittany answers for them, knowing Santana was about to say something rude. As much as she usually enjoys seeing her girlfriend rip into the other girl, she's already heard enough of Rachel's annoying rambling, and doesn't want to prolong it. "If her team does well, we'll have to stay longer."

"So like I said, Berry," Santana cuts in, folding her arms across her chest. "We'll see."

Rachel huffs and storms away, leaving the girls in peace. "I suddenly hope the tournament lasts all weekend somehow."

"Yeah, you know I loves me some house parties, but I forgot the fact that it'd involve being around Berry all night." Brittany cringes at the thought. "I can only handle that drunk, and I don't trust Puck enough to risk doing that sober."

"We'll just have to cheer extra loud for Ash and her team to win."

"Bigger signs than normal, definitely."

Brittany grins, and runs a finger along Santana's cheek. "And I'm totally painting your face. I'm not taking no for an answer this time."

"If you think it'll help," Santana laughs, attempting to playfully bite the finger running caressing her face.

"Whipped," comes a muffled voice from behind them, not at all well disguised by a fake cough. Santana turns around to glare at Puck, while Artie, Mercedes and Sam try to stifle their laughs, but fail.

Santana pouts when she sees Brittany crack a smile as well. "You'll all pay for that."

* * *

"Are you girls sure you don't mind taking Ash tomorrow?" Mrs. Pierce asks as she moves around the kitchen, cleaning up the mess she made while cooking dinner.

"They promised!" Ashley butts in from her seat at the table. The three girls are all huddled together doing their respective homework, Santana stopping every once in awhile to help one of the blondes if they need it.

Santana laughs, and bumps her shoulder into the younger girl. "It's no problem, Mrs. P. We did promise, and Britt could use some sun. She's a little pale."

"Am not!" Brittany whines from her side. She pouts until Santana drops a kiss on her shoulder in apology. "I thought you liked how pale I am."

"I like everything about you."

Ashley makes fake gagging sounds at their words, even though she loves that Brittany and Santana love each other so much. She just doesn't always need to see or hear it. And she's been hearing and seeing it a lot lately. "Do you guys always have to do that?"

"You'll understand some day, kiddo." Santana says it to tease the girl, but the sudden thought of Ashley dating sometime in the future makes her incredibly nervous. She pictures some punk kid taking her out to the movies and putting the moves on her, and she feels her muscles tighten. She's _so_ gonna be the overprotective surrogate big sister when that time comes. "When you're 30, and you're allowed to date."

"I like the sound of that," Mrs. Pierce comments with a laugh. She can't help but feel a little sorry for her youngest daughter, knowing that between her father and Santana, anybody she tries to date is going to be put through the ringer.

"That's not fair! Britty and Tana have basically been dating since they were my age!" Ashley protests.

Mrs. Pierce dries her hands off on the dish towel, before throwing it over her shoulder. She sends Santana a warm smile. "Well, if you meet someone that treats you as well as Santana treats Brittany, then we'll talk."

While Santana blushes at the compliment, Brittany beams and reaches around her girlfriend to poke her sister teasingly. "Good luck with that, Ash."

The youngest Pierce pouts, because she knows that will be impossible.

* * *

"Santana!" Brittany giggles when her eyes drift over to her girlfriend's sign. "You can't write that!"

The other girl leans back to look at her work, not seeing the problem. "Why not?"

"Everyone there is going to be under the age of ten," she explains, even though she's pretty sure Santana knows perfectly well why her sign is inappropriate. "I don't think their parents would like you having a sign with bad words on it and that tells Ashley to kill them all. No matter how cute the little drawing of her jumping up and down on some fat kid is."

"That's no fun," Santana grumbles, though she's really just trying to be difficult for the fun of it. She grins at Brittany, and pulls out the sign hidden underneath the one Brittany just vetoed, and shows her girlfriend. "Is this boring one better?"

Brittany reads it over, a simple 'Pierce is Fierce' with 'Go, Ashley, Go!' underneath it, and nods her head in approval. "Much. Now we just have to decide what you want painted on your face."

"I'm not painting my face, Britts."

"But you said!"

"I didn't think you were serious," Santana whines. She doesn't even know why she's bothering, since she knows she'll give in anyway. If Brittany doesn't wear her down tonight, Ashley will pile on in the morning and it will be impossible to refuse them both. "Do you even have face paint?"

Brittany nods. "My dad and his friends always paint their faces or chests when they go to games. If he has blue it'll match Ashley's jersey color!"

"We'll see," Santana offers, capping her marker and slipping it back into its box. "It's enough we're taking her to this thing and staying all day."

"Oh, don't act like doing Ash a favor is some big chore for you," Brittany counters with a smirk. She slips an arm around the other girl's shoulders and pulls her into her side. "You can be all big and tough at school, and act like this is some kind of punishment, but I know you're like totally happy to go cheer Ashley on."

Santana huffs half heartedly, but doesn't argue. "But I have a rep to maintain, Britt. You heard Puck and them today. It's bad enough they know how whipped I am for you. I don't need them to know your little sister has me wrapped around her finger, too."

"Aw, San," Brittany coos, pressing her lips to Santana's forehead with a small laugh. Santana pouts and unfolds her arms to wrap around Brittany's waist.

"Nobody will take my Lima Heights threats seriously if they know."

"We can't have that," the blonde agrees, even though she knows that nobody really takes her threats seriously as it is. Ever since the Lauren Zizes smack down last year, there's been significantly less fear among the student body. "It'll be our little secret. Now go get changed into your jammies, and I'll clean this stuff up."

Santana mumbles an agreement but is too comfortable to get up yet.

* * *

It's almost 3:30pm the next afternoon, and Santana has blue paint on her face. It's just a tiny 15, Ashley's jersey number, on her cheek, so it could be worse. And okay, the way Ashley's face lit up when she saw it earlier made it worth it, but she knows if she pretends it's bothersome, that Brittany will do something to thank her later.

"Mercedes just texted," Brittany informs her, reading over the words on her screen. Ashley isn't on the field at the moment, so neither girl is really paying that much attention. "She wants to know if we think we'll be able to make Rachel's party."

Santana checks the time on her own phone and contemplates. If Ashley's team loses their current game, they'll be done for the day, and if not, the championship game is next anyway. There's supposed to be some pizza dinner for the team after, so either way, they should be free. "Probably, yeah."

The blonde nods and types her message back to her friend, just in time to see her sister making her way onto the field. "Oh, Ashley's back on!"

"Finally," Santana grumbles, wondering why the coach even bothers taking her out when she's the best one on the team. It's no wonder they're losing. "This might be the last time she's in, so scream extra loud so we can really embarrass her."

"You're so mean."

"You love it," she replies with a wink, handing her girlfriend the sign she made last night. Brittany smirks back before the pair of them start yelling obnoxiously in support of Ashley. The tiny blonde looks over at them, mortified by their behavior, and tries motioning for them to shut up, which only causes them to yell louder.

"She's gonna kill us later," Brittany giggles, watching as the other kids on the field look from Ashley to them in confusion, while Ashley seems to be trying to act like she doesn't know who they are.

Santana laughs. "That's what she gets for guilt tripping us into coming." Their cheers start to get drowned out as the game starts again, and all the other people on the sidelines get going as well. The girls watch and cheer as Ashley runs around the field, outplaying almost everyone on either team.

"Ash just needs another goal and she'll have a cat trick, right?"

"_Hat_ trick, B," Santana corrects her with a smile, only taking her eyes off the game for a moment. She likes to make a fuss, but she really does enjoy watching Ashley's games, and seeing the little girl in her element, kicking ass and taking names.

"What do hats have to do with soccer?"

"What do _cats_ have to do with soccer?"

"Lord Tubbington is really good," Brittany answers seriously, though the glint in her eye leads Santana to believe she's just trying to be cute. "You should see him practice with Ash. He makes a good goalie."

Santana rolls her eyes but chuckles, more than used to LT's apparent ability to do anything a human can do. If he wasn't so fat and squishy, she might think he was a robot cat or something. She wouldn't put it passed her girlfriend to be able to make one. "Of course he is. But to answer your question, yeah, if she gets one more goal, she'll have a hat trick. I think. I'm not sure how it works for tournaments like this, if the goals have to all be in the same game, or if her goals from earlier count too."

"I think it should count," Brittany decides.

"Then it'll count," Santana agrees, bringing the hand she's holding up to her lips to kiss it. She turns back to the game just in time to see a girl she's positive is too old to be playing in this league purposely run into Ashley, sending her crashing to ground. She and Brittany react immediately, sitting up straight in their chairs, waiting for the little girl to get up. "Oh, hell no!"

Brittany tightens her hold on Santana's hand to keep her in place, as a couple of Ashley's teammates help her off the ground, and she seems to be fine. "Look, San, it's okay, Ash isn't hurt or anything."

"Fuck that!" Santana hisses, narrowing her eyes at the girl that hit Ashley. "Did you see her? That beast totally did that shit on purpose. Little bitch has a death wish."

"Excuse me," a voice to their right cuts in. Santana's attention turns to a woman that she thinks is probably in her thirties, who looks crazier than Mr. Schue's ex-wife. "That's my kid you're talking about."

Santana's eyes flash, and while Brittany knows she should at least try to contain the situation, she also knows there isn't much point. "Yeah, well, did you see what your kid just did to mine? Put a leash on that thing, lady."

"I think you're the one that needs the leash," she retorts with a scoff. "It's part of the game."

"Oh, I didn't realize we were watching a _football _game," Santana snaps, rolling her eyes. Brittany bites her lip to keep from reminding Santana that some people do actually refer to soccer as football. She doesn't think that will help the situation. "Pretty sure there's no tackling in soccer. Tell your ogre to tone it down a notch or twenty."

The woman gasps. "How dare you!"

"Okay, okay," another voice cuts in, and Brittany has never been more thankful to see Ashley's assistant coach than she is right now. She's watched him break up many soccer mom fights in the past, so she trusts him to be able to get it all under control. "The girls are over it, and are back to playing, so why don't we all just calm down and get back to watching the game, shall we? Set a good example?"

"Whatever," Santana mumbles, letting Brittany pull her back into her chair. She crosses her arms and glares at the other woman. "They're both on my list now."

"I know," the blonde assures, running a hand up and down the other girl's back to soothe her. "That list is getting pretty long, sweetie."

"People seriously need to stop pissing me off," she whines with a pout, finally turning away from the other woman completely. She's met with Brittany showing her a matching sympathetic pout, and she melts a little. "Or I could try to not get angry so easily."

Brittany laughs. "That's not happening."

"Yeah, probably not."

* * *

It's 7pm when they knock on Rachel Berry's front door. They can hear the show tunes from where they stand on the porch, and Santana is already cringing.

"What kind of music _is_ that?'

Santana looks down at the tiny blonde standing in front of her, who's looking up at her with messy hair and terrified eyes. "The devil's music." And right on cue, the door in front of them opens to reveal Rachel's beaming face. "Speaking of…"

"Brittany, Santana, you made it!" The massive grin on her face a huge give away that Puck succeeded in his mission and she's already more than a little tipsy. It takes a moment for her glazed eyes to wander down to Ashley. "And you brought a guest!"

"This is my little sister, Ashley," Brittany explains, placing her hand on the top of the girl's head as if Rachel would be confused in her drunken state. "My parents ended up going out with their friends, and we couldn't leave her at home. Is it okay if she's here?"

Rachel kneels down to get a good look at the girl. She studies her for a moment before giving a firm nod and standing back up. "While I must admit that I can't help but question the decision making skills of the adults that would leave the two of you responsible for a small child, as evidenced by your decision to bring said child to a party, the more the merrier!"

"Awesome, thanks," Brittany cheers, completely missing the insult in Rachel's words.

Santana, however, doesn't. "Yeah,_ thanks_, Berry." With a roll of the eyes, Santana takes Ashley's hand and pushes her way into the house, shoulder checking Rachel in the process. Brittany offers Rachel a shrug, and follows after them. Rachel, in her drunken state, doesn't really care, and just closes the door and heads back to her party.

When they enter the basement, the scene that greats them is reminiscent of Rachel's last house party. Blaine and Kurt are up on the mini stage, performing some god awful Broadway song, Mike and Tina are in the corner making out, Quinn and Mercedes seem somewhat sober, talking on the couch, and everyone else is dancing or running around the room.

"Jesus," Santana mumbles, taking the room in. "It's only 7, and you're all already off your faces?"

Rachel appears behind the girls, surveying the party. "Well, everyone has been here since this afternoon, when Noah apparently started spiking the delicious punch I made last night. So, unbeknownst to me, we all started getting intoxicated quite early. I think it influenced by decision to let the boys drop the pretense and bring in the booze."

"You think?"

"I do," Rachel nods seriously. She sways in her spot for a moment, before walking away abruptly, to throw herself at Finn.

"She's weird," Ashley comments. She's met a few of her sister's friends before: Quinn, when the three of them were closer, Mercedes during the Troubletones days, Artie when he was dating Brittany, and Mike when he'd come over to talk about choreography. But she's never been around them all as a group before, and the whole atmosphere is kind of overwhelming, but she didn't want to make Brittany and Santana miss the party to watch her, so she put her discomfort aside and offered to come.

Brittany nods in agreement. "Even _I_ think so."

"Come on, weirdoes," the brunette laughs, tugging them towards the couch Quinn and Mercedes are on. She wants to keep Ashley away from the craziness, and she's met them before, so she figures it's the best choice.

"You made it," Mercedes greets them, happy to have more sober people around to talk to. She's the designated driver for the evening, and Quinn figured that with her recent history of craziness, she should probably avoid getting drunk and angry. "I have never been happier to see you, Satan."

Santana playfully glares at the girl, but it doesn't fool anyone. "Oh, please, Wheezy, you know you're always happy to see me." She's always liked Mercedes, but after being in the Troubletones together, she's probably tied with Quinn for her closest non-Pierce friend. Not that she had a whole lot of competition in that area, but to consider someone an actual friend was a big deal to Santana, so she hopes Mercedes appreciates it.

"Not as happy as I am to see you go."

"Wait, was that a comment about my ass? It's always the ones you least expect."

"You know what I meant," the other girl counters. "And that obviously wasn't the case with you, you couldn't have been more obvious."

"Hey, Ashley," Quinn cuts in, knowing how the two of them can get if they really get going. The little girl turns her attention towards the blonde, giving her a shy smile. "How'd your tournament go?"

Ashley nervously tugs on her jersey, feeling self conscious in it all of a sudden. "We came in second."

"She got a _hat _trick," Brittany shares, making sure to use the right word this time. Judging by Santana's nod of approval, she was correct.

"And team MVP."

"That's what I'm talking about," Mercedes cheers, holding her hand up for a high five. Ashley hesitates for just a moment before responding, but eventually does with a smile.

Brittany softly runs her hand along Santana's lower back and she moves around her to take a seat beside Mercedes. "And San almost got into a fight with a mom from the other team."

"Of course she did," Quinn laughs, not the least bit surprised. Judging by the look on her face, Mercedes wasn't either. "You're already a soccer mom, how cute."

Santana's first instinct is to make a comment about how the only mother in the room is Quinn herself, but she knows that would be a low blow, especially considering everything that just happened with Beth. So, unlike she would've done less than a year ago, she bites her tongue and lets the comment slide. "I painted my face and everything, figured I might as well go all out."

"Well, who do we have here?" comes a slurred voice from behind them, effectively stopping any mocking that might have resulted from the face paint.

"Lady Hummel," she greets, taking in his appearance. "I didn't take you for a sloppy drunk."

Kurt nods mournfully. "I'll be mortified come morning. And the little lady is?"

"Britt's sister," Santana informs him, hands on the girl's shoulders protectively. Obviously she knows there's no need in their current company, but she knows Ashley is a bit uncomfortable. "Ash, this is Kurt, glee club's founding gay."

"It's always a colorful introduction with you, Santana," the boy comments, before bending down to get to Ashley's level, ignoring the way his head spins slightly. "Hello, Ashley. Aren't you just the cutest little thing."

Feeling Ashley tense at the attention of the unknown boy, Santana pulls her closer to her. "Back off, Rainbow Brite, you're scaring her. You've met her, now run along to your little Warbler before his co-dependency starts showing."

"I'd have an equally witty comeback to that if I was sober," Kurt informs her, affronted. He meets Santana's glare and his shoulders visible slump. "But since I'm not, I'm just gonna be the bigger person and walk away." With that, he spins on his heel and makes his way back over to where Blaine is doing shots with Puck, Sugar, and Artie.

"You okay?" Santana questions the tiny blonde once they're alone. She knows the girl is shy, but Kurt is one of the least threatening people she knows, so for her to be so closed off with him was a little weird. Ashley just nods, sending her a smile to seem more convincing. "Well, you want anything to eat? Or drink, if there's anything Puckerman hasn't spiked yet?"

They had just come from dinner with her team, but they left before dessert was order, and she was extra hungry after running around all day. "Something to eat?"

"I'm hungry, too," Brittany announces, pushing up from the seat she just sat down in. She holds out a hand for her sister to take. "Let's go find something." Santana takes the seat Brittany just left, and watches as her girls walk towards the refreshment table Rachel had set up across the room.

"What's wrong with her?" Mercedes asks, once the blondes are out of earshot. "I don't remember her being so quiet."

"I don't know, she's not usually," she agrees, pondering the behavior. "It's probably just overwhelming, you know? All the people in here, that are drunk and obnoxious."

"You'd think she'd be used to obnoxious by now," Mercedes teases, earning her an elbow to the ribs.

Santana watches as Mike and Tina join the blondes at the snack table, trying to make conversation. Ashley seems a bit more responsive this time, probably because there's less people and she's met Mike before. "Maybe it's because of all the weird stuff with her friends at school. Ever since Britt and I came out, things haven't been so great for her there, with annoying ass parents being assholes and everything. She's probably not used to people wanting to talk to her."

"That's horrible."

"Tell me about it," Santana agrees, feeling that familiar mixture of guilt and rage bubbling up in her gut. "I feel like shit anytime I see her playing by herself or asking us to do something with her."

Quinn and Mercedes share a look, both wanting to comfort their friend and tell her it's not her fault, but they know she's probably been told that a million times by now, and that she'll never believe it. Instead, they decide to help her, and Quinn turns to Mercedes with an idea. "Hey, what about Jack?"

"Who?"

"My little brother, Jackson," Mercedes answers, seeing where Quinn is going with this. "What grade is Ashley in?"

"Third."

"Same as Jackson. I wonder if they're in the same class."

"Ashley's in Mrs. Randall's class," Santana informs her, and Mercedes is impressed that she knows that. She doesn't even know the name of her own brother's teacher, let alone Sam's brother's or sister's. "Is there a point to this?"

"Maybe they can be friends," Quinn explains, gesturing between Mercedes and the little girl across the room. "They're the same age, Jackson is a total sweetheart, and obviously his parents won't have a problem with you and Britt."

"What is this, a blind date or something?" Santana questions, though she's contemplating it. She wants Ashley to have a friend more than anything, and she can't deny that the idea of it being someone she sort of knew by proxy made it even more appealing.

The other girls roll their eyes. "Just think about it, I bet they'd make great friends."

* * *

A couple hours later, and Ashley is a bit more relaxed. She's been introduced to every member, and even talked to most of them, and now she's dancing around with Brittany and Santana. She's visibly tired from her long day, but she's having fun and doesn't want to admit defeat yet.

Quinn and Mercedes have gained some company on the couch, in the form of friends starting to sober up and crash. The ones that aren't passed out are making conversation, trying not to throw up, or watching the ones still dancing.

"Puck!" Santana glares at him, and making a 'cut it out' motion with her hand.

"What?"

"Change the song," she orders him, as if it's the most obvious thing in the world. "You can't play that crap when there's an eight year old around."

"Nine!"

"Sorry, of course, nine," she tells Ashley sweetly, smiling apologetically at her, before going right back to scowling at Puck when the music hasn't changed yet. "Now change it before I skin you alive." Puck raises his hands in surrender and does just that, the next song coming on a slow one. As soon as the beat slows down, so does Ashley's energy and Santana can feel her slump against her side.

"Someone's sleepy," Brittany comments, running her fingers through her sister's soft blonde hair.

Santana looks sympathetically the little girl. "You tired, sweetie?" Ashley doesn't want to admit it, but eventually gives a slight nod, not even bothering to look up. Santana bends down to pick her up and Ashley wraps her legs around Santana's waist and her arms around her neck. "You've had a big day and it's almost your bedtime."

"One more song," she mumbles against Santana's shoulder. The brunette looks to her girlfriend and gets a nod of approval.

"Okay, one more song and then we'll get you home and into bed, okay?"

As the three of them continue to sway to the melody booming through the speakers, some of their friends watch them from across the room. "They're so cute. They look like a little family."

"I never would've guessed Santana likes kids," Blaine comments, watching the scene upside down from his position sprawled out on the floor.

Quinn has to laugh at that. "Oh, believe me, she doesn't like kids. It's just Ashley."

"Figures," Mercedes throws in, and Sam mumbles in agreement beside her, his head too sore to actually speak. "Anything Brittany related is her exception."

"If you think Brittany's got her whipped," Quinn begins, only feeling a little bad for ruining her friend's rep. Half of her listening audience probably won't even remember any of this come morning. "You should see her with Ashley. Or when both of them tag team her. They can get her to do anything, like paint her face. It would actually be cute, if it weren't so pathetic."

"Maybe if I dye my hair blonde, she'll be nicer to me."

"Yeah, right," Quinn replies back with a scoff. "You think I hold any of that power over her? Unless your last name is Pierce, you're lucky if Santana even considers you a friend."

Before anyone has a chance to respond, Santana walks up to the group with Ashley in her arms and Brittany by her side. "If you morons are done talking about me, we're gonna head out."

"Already?"

"It's bedtime for this one," she tells them, nodding her head to the sleeping girl resting on her shoulder. She sees Rachel starting to push herself up to be a good hostess, and immediately nudges her back down with her foot. "Stay there, Berry, we can show ourselves out. Thanks for having us or whatever."

"It was my pleasure," Rachel tells them, her usual peppiness gone, and her voice sounding monotone. "I am very happy that you made it and were here to celebrate the good times with our merry band of misfits and I wish you and your little family a good night."

"Riiighht," she drawls, sharing a look with Quinn and Mercedes before turning her attention away from the other brunette. "Enjoy your hangovers tomorrow, peasants."

Brittany smiles and waves at her friends. "Bye guys, see you on Monday."

"We'll talk about that thing then, okay?"

Santana nods at Mercedes and says her goodbyes again, and the trio make their way through the Berry house to Santana's car. Brittany gets into the passenger seat and twists around to watch her girlfriend buckling her sleeping sister in. "What are you gonna talk to Mercedes about on Monday?"

"Something about her brother." Santana manages to get Ashley upright and fastened into her seat, so she shuts the back door and quickly slips into the drivers seat to face the older blonde. "He's apparently the same age as Ash, and Quinn thinks they'd get along."

"Aww," Brittany gushes, so happy to hear about the mere possibility of her sister getting a new friend. "We'll have to set that up. She really needs some friends, San. It's really not fair that she has to hang out with us all the time. We're almost done high school, what's she gonna do if we're not here anymore?"

"I know, Britts." She looks into the rear view mirror and watches Ashley sleeping in the back with a sad smile. "We'll talk to Mercedes at school on Monday and look into it. He's related to Wheezy, he can't be too bad, right?"

Brittany nods her head. "Mercedes is super cool. I bet her brother would make a great Santana."

"What?"

"You know, he could be the awesomest best friend ever," she explains likes it's obvious. "That will protect Ashley against the mean kids at school, and help her with her homework and make her feel super smart. Like you've always done for me."

"Britt." Santana reaches over to squeeze her girlfriend's hand, just wanting to touch her.

"Everyone should have their own Santana," the blonde states earnestly. "You've been a great one for her so far, and I don't mind sharing you with her, but I worry what might happen to her when we're not here. So I really want her to have someone her own age to do all that stuff. I never would've made it here without you."

Santana tugs on the hand in her's, pulling Brittany closer, so that their faces are barely a breath apart. "You would have," she swears against her lips. She runs a hand along the back of Brittany's neck, playing with the collar of her shirt. "You are the sweetest person in the world."

"I beg to differ," she whispers back, a smile playing on her lips.

"And I hope you know that I will always be your Santana," she promises, not being able to stop herself from softly presses a kiss to Brittany's lips. "And that I would never ever leave Ashley alone here without someone to take care of her. We'll figure it out, B, I promise. She'll be okay. I'll make sure of it."

"I love you."

"I love you, too." And with one more kiss, Santana starts the car and heads in the direction of home.

* * *

**See, all over the place. Hopefully it still flowed, but I did end up writing half of this a long time ago and the other half the other day, so it probably doesn't. Anyway, I know some people wanted to see Ashley with the rest of the glee club, and here was a bit of that in an inappropriate setting (which is classic Glee imo), but I plan on writing more, because I find I actually enjoy writing for some of those guys, even when I'm not huge fans of all of them on the actual show. I somehow find their voices a bit easier to write (at least I hope so), and I enjoy writing Santana the way she is with others too. **

**Thanks to everyone that answered my question last chapter. I have decided that I want to do some chapters that will be in the future, but I'm not sure what I want to do about the canon stuff. The majority of the future chapters would be much further into the future than this current season, and while I hate what they did with Brittany failing and breaking Brittana up, I can't help but have a few ideas for chapters and how to incorporate Ashley into those storylines, so I'm somewhat tempted to follow that canon for a chapter or two, at least the failing/LDR part. I probably wouldn't have them broken up in any of the chapters, and if I did, it would likely focus on them getting back together. We'll see, but until next time, which I hope is a lot sooner than later, please review!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Okay, I'm back with an update. I'm sorry it's been so long, but with everything going on with the show, I was trying to distance myself a bit, to spare myself the pain. However, I'm trying to be optimistic in thinking that the worst is behind us for now, and that we'll at least start getting some good angst in the new year, so I let myself write something. **

**This isn't very long, but I think I want to try to write a Christmas chapter, so I'm thinking I'll have another update for you soon, to make up for this one being shorter than the last few. This chapter doesn't have quite as much Ashley as they normally do, and is more... I was gonna say set up, but it's really not, since I don't plan on spending too much time with the follow through, but whatever. It basically addresses the whole failing/college thing. As I said before, I was stuck on what to do, because I hate that they failed Britt on the show, but I had a few chapter ideas for it, but then someone pointed out that I've been having Santana helping Britt with homework a lot, so failing wouldn't make sense. So I kind of compromised, and took some liberties with how this would work. I tried to do a bit of research to see if this would be at all realistic, but it was hard, and it made sense to me, so I went with it. And it's something that kind of happens in Canada. It's not like Glee did much research either, so I hope you can overlook it. Either way, it will likely only affect a chapter or two anyway. So enjoy!  
**

* * *

"You got yours?"

Brittany bites her lip nervously and nods from her spot in the middle of her bed, the envelope laid out in front of her, unopened. Santana quickly shuts Brittany's bedroom door and makes her way over to her girlfriend's bed. She hesitates for a moment before crawling onto it, copying the blonde and sitting cross legged across from her.

"Did you show your mom?"

The blonde shakes her head. "I texted you as soon as I got the mail. I think my mom is picking up Ashley and Jacks from school, so she didn't have time to check it yet. Your mom?"

"I don't think so," the brunette answers, playing with the edges of her envelope. "All the mail was on the kitchen counter, but it was at the bottom of the pile, I don't think she went through it yet."

Brittany nods, and her eyes drift towards her girlfriend's hands. Her stomach drops. "Oh."

Santana's head snaps up. "What?"

"Your's is bigger," Brittany points out in a soft voice, her shoulders deflating in defeat.

The other girl lets the package drop onto the bed, and the contrast in size between her's and Brittany's is glaringly obvious. A feeling of dread washes over her, but she tries her best to ignore it. "Hey, it doesn't mean anything. It could be because, um, because…"

"San, it's okay," Brittany cuts her off, the pointless reassurance just making it worse. "They're both from Louisville. Mine is small, yours is big. Even I know what that means."

"Britts…"

The blonde shakes her head, fighting the lump in her throat. She grabs the bigger envelope and hands it to her girlfriend. "Open it."

"I can just wait until later," Santana insists, feeling awful about the idea of opening it in front of Brittany, if they weren't getting the same answers. She tries to throw the package to the side, but Brittany grabs it before she can.

"Open it," she repeats, shoving it into Santana's hands. "Or I will."

Santana sighs, and takes the envelope, ripping the top open. She glances at Brittany to make sure she still wants her to do this, then pulls out the contents. Finding the letter she's looking for, she takes a breath and unfolds it, reading over the words on the page.

"So?"

"I got in," Santana admits, folding the page up and tucking it under her leg. She honestly has no idea what to feel about it. She just got a full ride scholarship to a great school, but the idea of going there without Brittany pretty much sucks any enjoyment out of it.

Brittany doesn't even have to pretend to be happy for her girlfriend. "San, that's awesome!"

"No, it's not," Santana grumbles. "Not if you didn't get in, too."

The girls have always planned on going to college together, and once they got to high school and joined the Cheerios, that college became The University of Louisville. It had the best cheerleading squad in the country. It's not exactly what they want to do the rest of their lives, but they're really good at it, and Sue had connections there, and well, it was kind of an unspoken assumption that Brittany's best shot of getting into college was on an athletic scholarship, so that's what the plan had become. But the plan doesn't work if only one of them gets accepted.

"I'm sorry," Brittany replies, thinking she let Santana down.

"No, no, Britt," she rushes to reassure, reaching for the other girl's hand. She tugs on it until Brittany looks up at her. "I'm not mad at you. I know how hard you've worked towards this. I could never be mad at you because of this. I'm pissed at that damn school. If they knew how hard you worked to get your grades up…"

Brittany shrugs, used to the rejection. She had tried to be positive, but she figured that even with Sue's letter of recommendation, it was a long shot. Santana has been helping her a lot with her homework and studying this year, but she can't take her tests for her. She figures she's lucky enough she's graduating at all. "Not hard enough, apparently."

"You worked your ass of, babe," Santana argues, getting more and more upset about this as they continue to talk. She doesn't realize she's just making Brittany feel worse.

"I guess even when I try my hardest, I'm still not smart enough."

"Baby…"

"No, San, it's okay," Brittany cuts her off, knowing what she's going to say. She's heard it all before. And even though her girlfriend can usually cheer her up with a pep talk, this failure feels too big for a simple speech to fix. Seeing the helpless look on Santana's face, the blonde knows she can't dwell on it right now. "I knew it was a really long shot, anyway. We'll figure something else out. Maybe I can get a job. I think they have a Perdue factory down there. Chickens are kind of cool, I guess."

Santana knows that this is absolutely not okay. Her heart is breaking for Brittany and for herself, and she can feel fear starting to creep up on her as questions about what happens now start to brew up inside of her. This was the plan, it was their _only_ plan. She didn't have a plan that involved them being separated next year. That wasn't the _plan_. She's starting to freak out, but one look at Brittany's face tells her that she can't do it. Brittany is too disappointed and too self conscious to have this conversation right now, so instead, she puts on a brave face and plays along. "Yeah, I think they do, Britts. I think I read that somewhere."

* * *

Santana is just about to send Brittany a text when she hears her come bursting through the front door. She knows it's her girlfriend because nobody else in the world has the right to enter the Lopez house without invitation. The brunette is already halfway to the stairs before the blonde calls up to her.

Brittany sounds excited, which is puzzling, since she was obviously bummed about her acceptance letter when Santana left the Pierce's earlier. They had avoided the topic for the rest of the afternoon, but when Brittany's parents came home, she asked if her girlfriend wouldn't mind letting her tell them herself. She's pretty sure it's because Brittany thinks she's disappointed or angry with her, and the idea that Brittany might think that destroys her, but she didn't want to make it harder for the girl than needed. The blonde had promised to call when she was done, so she's a little surprised to hear Brittany coming through her door with no warning, especially sounding excited.

"Brittany, what on earth is going on?" Mrs. Lopez asks, walking out of the kitchen just as Santana is coming down the stairs.

The blonde doesn't want to be rude to Mrs. Lopez, but she turns to face her girlfriend when she answers the question. "I got in!"

"What?"

"I got in!"

Santana stops on the last step and grabs the paper Brittany is shoving in her direction to read over. "But, I though the envelope…"

"Me, too," Brittany explains, bouncing on the heels of her feet. "But my mom actually opened it, and read the letter, and I got in! Well, kind of. On the condition that I retake a few classes to bring my grades up, I can start in January, on full scholarship."

"Britt!" Santana wastes no time, and jumps into Brittany's arms, knowing her girlfriend will catch her. The blonde does catch her, but can't hold her balance and the girls tumble to the floor in a fit of giggles.

Mrs. Lopez watches them with a smile and shakes her head, more than used to their antics. She would normally leave them alone, but she really wants to hear more about Brittany's letter. She notices that daughter has dropped it in all the excitement, and she bends down to pick it up while the girls celebrate.

"Wait, wait," Santana gasps out after a moment, pulling away from Brittany as her words begin to fully register. "What do you mean January? Can't you just take the classes during the summer and start in September with me?"

Brittany's smile only falters a little bit at the question. "They want me to improve three grades: English, Math and Bio. My parents checked, and with the way they schedule summer school, I can't take all three classes in one summer." Santana nods, vaguely remembering when Puck had to take a summer course, and was in school almost all day long for the first month of summer. "And it seems silly to waste our summer together if I'd still have to be at McKinley for a semester anyway, so we decided that I'd just take the classes first semester, do better this time, and then start my freshmen year in January."

"But then when do you do your second semester of freshmen year?"

Brittany scrunches up her nose at the thought. "I'd have to do it in the summer with the other students that start in the new year."

"So we'd still have to be apart for a semester?" Santana asks, deflating a little bit at the thought. She pulls away to get off Brittany, letting the blonde sit up.

Brittany immediately follows her girlfriend, grabbing a hold of her hands. "It's just a couple of months. And Louisville isn't that far away, that's one of the reasons we picked it, remember? So we could still come home every other weekend to see Ash? So you can still do that, or I could visit you? And there's Thanksgiving break, and then Christmas. It's not really that long."

"Longest we've ever been apart," the brunette pouts, pulling away and folding her arms across her chest in an attempt to look as childish as possible. She whips her head around to glare at her mother when she hears her laughing.

"How ever will you survive?"

Brittany smiles at the teasing, but knows not to laugh. "San, come on." Her girlfriend turns back to look at her. "I know it's not perfect, but it's better than me not getting in at all, right?"

Santana reluctantly nods, because it's true. Just ten minutes ago, she thought Brittany had been flat out rejected, and had no idea how they were ever going to make it work. But now, at least they had a plan. It wasn't their original plan, but it was the next best thing.

* * *

"I wish all the cheerleaders could live in a house together or something," Santana complains, clicking through the pictures of dorm rooms the school offers. The girls are sitting in Brittany's room a few days later, looking up anything they can find about the University of Louisville.

"Like a sorority?"

"Yeah."

Brittany laughs at the idea. "You'd hate that."

"I would not," Santana protests. "Not if I got my own room."

"Can you imagine living in a big house with all the Cheerios?"

Santana thinks about that, and immediately shakes her head. "Okay, no, that'd be hell. I think I'd rather live with the glee club."

"That'd be so awesome," Brittany exclaims, just imagining all the fun their group of friends could get up to living together. "It sucks that we'll all be separated next year."

"You've still got a bit longer," the brunette points out.

Brittany sighs, and cuddles into Santana's side. "I know, but it won't be the same. Not without you. Or Mercedes, or Quinn. Or even Rachel. Can you imagine glee club without Rachel?"

"Yeah, it'll be awesome."

"But who will sing everything?"

"Blaine Warbler, of course," she answers, trying to keep the sneer out of her voice. She likes the guy okay, but she's still kind of bitter about how many solos the kid gets after just joining and how everyone kisses his ass like his voice is anything more than mediocre.

Brittany makes a face, thinking along the same lines. "That doesn't make me feel better. And there'll be a bunch of new people."

"Aw, it'll be okay, Britts," Santana promises, throwing an arm around her shoulders to comfort her girlfriend. "It'll just be a couple months, and then you can come join me in Louisville, and I'll introduce you to all the cool new people I've met, and they'll love you, and before you know it, we'll have a whole new group of friends to judge and feel superior around."

"That's true." She tries not to think about how it'll feel to know Santana is out making friends without her. They've been a package deal for so long, she doesn't think Santana has ever had friends she wasn't friends with too. Just the idea of meeting 'Santana's friends' is so weird to her. "Hopefully your roommate will be nice."

Santana groans. "I wish my mom would spring for a single dorm. I mean, I'm on full scholarship, you'd think she could afford it."

"She probably knows you'll never talk to anyone if you're not forced into a confided space with them."

Santana is about to protest when she hears her name being called from the doorway. They look up to find Ashley standing at the entrance to Brittany's room, wringing her hands together.

"Hey, squirt," Santana greets her with a smile. "What's up?"

Ashley toes the carpet, feeling shy around the girl for the first time a long time. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Of course," the brunette answers without a thought. She shares a look with Brittany, both noticing the girl's strange behavior. "What are you doing all the way over there? Get in here." The tiny blonde makes her way into the room and climbs up onto the bed, sitting across from the couple on the other side. "What can we do for you?"

"I was over at Jackson's house after school," she begins, crossing her legs underneath her. "And he said he was sad because after Mercedes finishes high school this year, she's moving away from home, because that's what big kids do when they get older. And he asked if you guys were leaving too, and I didn't know, so are you?"

Santana feels a lump start to form in her throat at the question, and the tremble in the little girl's voice as she asks it. One look at Brittany tells her that she's having the same problem. They've been dreading having this conversation. With a sigh, she closes the laptop and places it on the bedside table before patting her lap. "Come here."

Ashley quickly moves up to sit in the girl's lap, twisting her body to the side so that she can see both of them. As soon as she sees the look on her sister's face, she knows the answer to her question. "You are, aren't you?"

"We are," Santana confirms, wrapping her arms around the tiny body in her lap.

"I'll be around for a bit longer," Brittany informs her, hoping it might cheer her up a bit. She knows it won't though. Ashley loves her, but Santana is her hero, and Brittany knows her sister will miss her more than anything. "But then I'll be going to live with Santana, too."

"How far away are you moving?" she asks in small voice, scared of the answer.

"It's just a few hours away," Santana promises, rubbing a hand up and down her arm, hoping to comfort her. "And we've already decided to come home every other weekend, just to see you."

That does make Ashley feel a little bit better, but she's still sad because it won't be the same. "But I get to see you _everyday_ now."

"I know, sweetie," Santana agrees with a sigh. Just when she was thinking she'd be able to survive a couple months without Brittany, Ashley had to come and remind her that she has two blondes she'll miss terribly. "You have no idea how much I'm gonna miss you."

"Who'll play with me? And help me with my homework?"

"You know Jacks will," Santana reminds her, thanking her lucky stars for the hundredth time that the two of them ended up getting along so well. "And hopefully you guys will be in the same class next year, and you can do your homework together."

"I'll still be here for a little while," Brittany jumps in, poking her sister in the stomach when she starts to pout. "And we're gonna talk on the phone and Skype a lot, and I'll even share her if you're good."

Ashley looks up at her sister with pleading eyes and holds out her pinky. "You promise?"

"I _promise_," the older girl assures, hooking her pinky around Ashley's to seal the deal.

Santana watches the interaction and falls more in love with both girls. Knowing Ashley will miss her that much, and seeing Brittany being sweet enough to promise to share the limited time they'll have together, fills her with so much affection for both blondes that she thinks she might burst. She has no idea how she got so lucky to be so loved by these two wonderful girls, or how she'll be able to handle being away from them.

She doesn't realize she's started to cry until she feels Ashley wiping a tear away with her little hand. "Don't be sad, Tana. I'll be okay."

Brittany's stomach flips as she watches Santana give her sister a teary smile, before burying her face in her soft hair. She realizes then just how much harder Santana is going to have it than she is. She'll be in a whole new place, and won't know anyone, and missing her two favorite people. She makes a promise to herself that she's going to make this whole transition as easy as possible, for all three of them. She doesn't know how yet, but she's gonna take care of her girl.

"Come on, no more crying," she declares, rubbing her girlfriend's back, hoping to coax her out of the bear hug she currently has Ashley in. She waits until both girls are looking at her before continuing. "We've still got the rest of the school year and all summer to hang out and have fun, let's try not to think about it too much, okay? Let's just enjoy it."

Santana smiles at her girlfriend, and leans over to kiss her sweetly. "Thank you." Brittany hums against her lips, pressing against her again for another one.

"I won't miss this," Ashley complains, trying to scramble off Santana's lap, not wanting to be so close to them when they're doing that. Both girls laugh into their kiss before pulling away and turning on the little girl. They pin her to the bed and start tickling her, smothering her in obnoxious raspberry kisses as she squeals in delight.

* * *

**I hope you guys are okay with that compromise? I really wanted to write about them having the talk about leaving with Ashley, but then I didn't know how I wanted it to go, and it kind of just ended up there. As for a possible Christmas chapter, I'm trying to decide if I want to make it set in S3, when the Pierces (and Santana, obviously) went to visit family in Santa Fe, because I always love reading the girls with each other's extended families and how they all interact together and stuff. Or if I want to make it the following Christmas, which would be Santana home from college, and before Brittany would start after the break. Any preferences? Let me know!**

**PS: Don't worry, when I was wondering about following canon last chapter, I strictly meant the failing thing. There won't be any breaking up or you know who involved, I could never.  
**


	9. Chapter 9

**Okay, so while this is the Christmas-y update I said I'd write, it's obviously very late. It's actually not even really that Christmasy, to be honest. It's more about Christmas break. I ended up going with Santana coming home after her first semester at college for a few reasons. I wanted to get out of the S3 timeline finally (not that I'm not going back to it, remember), I felt there was more story to tell here, I wasn't really sure where it would fit in with the wedding update (and thus having to figure out when the last time the saw the Pierces was and all that), and I had wanted to involve the Lopezes a bit, as per a request (but that didn't end up happening, sorry). This is kind of all over the place and really jumpy, but I just got ideas as I wrote, and went with it. The end is really rushed because I could feel myself losing motivation, and I didn't want this chapter to sit on my comp for a month, unfinished, so I kind of scrapped scenes and summarized them instead. But enjoy!****  
**

* * *

"You're sure she doesn't know?" Santana asks the girl on her computer screen.

Brittany immediately nods her head. "She has no idea. I told her you had a final on Christmas Eve Day, so she doesn't think you're coming home until next week."

"Okay, good."

"She was really sad," the blonde notes, remembering the way her sister's lip started to tremble when she told her she had to wait even longer to see Santana. "She almost cried."

Santana knows she should probably feel bad for almost making a little girl cry, but she can't lie and say it doesn't give her an ego boost to know she's missed that much. Not that she didn't already know that. "Remind me to get her ice cream tomorrow night to make up for it then."

"Only if you get me some, too."

"Of course," Santana smiles at her, wishing more than anything she could kiss her girlfriend right now.

Brittany is just about to voice that same thought when she hears the front door open and her sister's voice drift through the house. "Oh, she's back, I should go. But you'll be home before I get out of school, right?"

"Planning on it," Santana answers. "I'm leaving early and traffic shouldn't be too bad. But I'll text you when I get into Lima."

"I can't wait to see you," the blonde gushes, holding a hand over her heart. "I'm totally going to jump you on sight, so I hope your cheerleading practices have made you stronger."

Santana laughs and holds up an arm, flexing for her girlfriend. "I'm ready for you."

Brittany wiggles her eyebrows and is just about to reply with something dirty when she remembers Santana's roommate is in the room, and they've already traumatized her enough with their Skype activities this semester. "I hear footsteps on the stairs, so I gotta go, but I love you and can't wait to get my sweet lady kisses on tomorrow."

"I love you, too, Britt-Britt." She's just able to blow Brittany a kiss when the blonde is disconnected. She stares at her screen with a goofy smile on her face until her roommate interrupts her.

"You're so pathetic," she teases, ripping a page out of her open notebook and crumpling it up to throw at her friend.

Santana manages to avoid getting hit and just smirks at her. "You're just jealous because you don't have a gorgeous, adorable and _flexible_ girlfriend to go home to."

"You know me so well," Taylor replies, rolling her eyes.

"Whatever, you don't have a guy, either."

"That's what you think."

Santana groans, remembering what a crying mess her friend was when she came back from Thanksgiving break, after hooking up her ex while she was home. "Do not hook up with him again, okay? Britt's coming back with me, remember? I'm not gonna have time to take care of your heartbroken ass."

"Yeah, yeah, I promise," Taylor says, holding up her hands in surrender. "I've learned my lesson. But speaking of Brittany, we still need to discuss some ground rules for how this is going to work. Judging by how you two are when she comes to visit, you're going to scar me for life within a week."

"You liked it," Santana teases, snickering when she remembers the look on Taylor's face when she walked in on her and Brittany heading to third base. Taylor was mortified, but her and Brittany just laughed it off. After being caught in the act as much as they've been, it loses it's effect. "But Britt might be getting a single, so we might not have that problem. We'll see."

"Let's pray," the other girl hopes, though she thinks she'd probably start to miss her roommate if she was gone so much. They got along pretty well, as far as roommates go. "You know I like Brittany, but you guys were bad enough on weekends. I don't think I can deal with that all semester."

Santana just smirks, already planning on being as obnoxiously in love as possible around her friend now.

* * *

Brittany is sitting beside Marley in the choir room, listening to Blaine whine about his breakup with Kurt, when she feels her phone vibrate with a new text.

_In Lima, at the intersection outside of Breadstix. Can't wait to kiss your face._

"Is that Santana?" Marley asks, interrupting Blaine when she sees the blonde smiling at her phone.

Brittany beams up at her friends. "Yeah, she's in Lima."

"Merry Christmas to you," Blaine mumbles, his jealousy obvious.

"I know, right?" Brittany can't help but start bouncing in her seat in excitement. She looks at the clock and for the first time in as long as she can remember; she really wishes she could leave Glee early.

_Come pick me up? I want to see you asap._

_Of course._

Brittany suddenly finds Christmas songs really annoying, because they seem to last forever and they're currently standing in the way of her reunion with her girlfriend. Finally, Joe finishes his boring song that she wasn't really paying attention to, and Finn dismisses them for the afternoon. Nobody even bothers trying to say anything to her, and she dashes out of the room, running towards the doors she knows Santana will be waiting outside.

As promised, the second Brittany sees her girlfriend, she leaps into her arms to crush her in a bear hug. "You're here!"

"There's nowhere else I'd rather be." Santana buries her face in crook of Brittany's neck, while her arms squeeze Brittany against her as hard as she can. "God, I've missed you so much, B."

"Me too," the blonde whispers, trying to hold Santana tighter, but finding it's impossible. "You have no idea how much."

"I think I have a good idea."

Brittany pulls away just enough to press their lips together for their first kiss in a month, and just like that, they both feel whole again.

* * *

Ashley spots Santana's car before she spots her, but when she finally does, her reaction rivals her sister's. "_Santana_!"

Santana turns away from her conversation with Mrs. Jones just in time to catch the tiny blonde that throws herself at her. She's gotten taller since she's been gone, but she can still carry her. She doesn't even want to imagine the day when she can't. "Hey, babycakes! Surprised to see me?"

"Britt said you weren't coming until next week!"

"I lied," Brittany informs her with a smile, happy to see the two of them reunited. "I wanted it to be a surprise."

"I'm surprised," the little girl giggles, planting a kiss on Santana's cheek before she's placed back on her feet.

Before she can say anything, she hears Jackson calling her name as he joins the group. She turns to see him walking towards her, holding her backpack. "You dropped this."

"Hey, Jacks," Santana greets the boys, holding up her hand to high five him. "You still taking good care of my girl?"

The boy blushes, but nods his head, earning a laugh from his mother, who was there to pick the two of them up. "Well, Santana, it was so nice to you. I hope you'll all stop by for dinner sometime over the break. I know Mercy would love to see you. Quinn, too. Her mother is on some cruise, so she's staying with us for the holidays. You can invite your parents, we'll make a party of it."

"That sounds great," she responds, her mouth practically watering at the idea of Mrs. Jones' cooking. "I'm sure we'll see you or Mercedes again soon, so we'll make plans later."

"Okay, you three have a good night then." The girls wave goodbye to the Joneses, as Santana opens the back door to her car.

"Get in, missy," she instructs, tossing Ashley's bag inside and waving her hand to get the girl to follow. "We've got ice cream to get."

Ashley's eyes light up and she gives Santana another hug. "I'm so glad you're back."

"I'm starting to think she just likes me for the ice cream," she remarks to Brittany as the little girl gets into the back seat.

"Why do you think I'm still dating you?" the blonde teases. She wants to kiss the pout off the brunette's lips, but knows doing it in front of Ashley's school isn't the best idea. People were just starting to get over all the drama from last year. Instead, she playfully pulls at the girl's bottom, and slips past her to get into the passenger side door.

Santana stands there for a moment, thinking about how good it is to be home.

* * *

Santana doesn't discover the flaw in her plan until Monday, as she sits alone in her room while Brittany and Ashley are both in school. They still have almost another week of classes before they get off for Christmas break, and she's got nothing to do.

She's just about to resort to texting Taylor to make sure she got home safely, when she gets a text from Mercedes, asking if she wants to meet her and Quinn for lunch at the Lima Bean. She immediately accepts and rushes out the door.

The streets of Lima are pretty deserted in the middle of a school day, and she gets over there in record time. She spots them at a corner table and joins them. "Hello, ladies."

"Satan," Mercedes addresses her with a warm smile, even standing up to give the girl a hug in greeting. Quinn does the same, and soon the three girls are sitting down and updating each other on school, work and their love lives (Quinn likes a guy in her Psychology class, and Mercedes has been single since breaking up with Sam when he moved back home to be with his parents), which brings the topic to Brittany.

"Are they doing anything special for her last week?" Quinn asks, taking a sip of her coffee.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, remember our last week?" she comments, looking to Mercedes as well. "We all sang to each other and everyone was all emotional? Brittany was kind of in the middle, if I remember correctly. She was graduating, but wasn't leaving, so she was kind of in limbo, didn't really get to appreciate all the fan fair and hysterics."

Santana's been so focused on the fact that Brittany's about to start college soon, that she hasn't given much thought to the fact that she's also finishing high school. And that because she's doing it in the middle of the year, she's not really going to get to do all the usual nostalgic celebrating with her friends stuff that comes with the end of high school. Manboobs probably isn't even going to do anything special on her last day of Glee.

"I never thought of that," Mercedes remarks, her thoughts running along the same lines as Santana's. "That kind of sucks. I'm sure Britt loves that kinda stuff."

"She does," she replies, the wheels in her head already turning. "Okay, well, this is unacceptable, so we're gonna have to do something about it."

"We are, are we?"

Santana raises a challenging eyebrow at her friends. "Don't you think Brittany deserves to feel special on her last day of high school? Don't you think she should get to celebrate it with her friends like we did? Is that not something my girlfriend deserves?"

"You're not as scary as you think you are," Quinn informs her, rolling her eyes. She glances at Mercedes and sees her biting her lip. "But it seems your guilt trip worked on this one, so I guess we're in. What's the plan?"

Santana sends the blonde a smug smile. "Not sure yet, but I'll be sure to inform you of it when it comes to me.'

"We'll be waiting by the phone."

They don't have to wait long, because the perfect idea comes to Santana the next night, when everyone forces her and Mercedes to perform their version of River Deep, Mountain High at the Jones' dinner party. She watches Brittany's eyes follow her, the way she cheers them on from the couch, chanting just a little bit louder than everyone else, just like always.

As soon as the song is done, she drags Quinn and Mercedes out of the room and into the hallway to tell them what's gonna go down and what she needs them to do.

* * *

The next day, she goes to the choir room during classes to see Finn about her plan.

"Imma need you to give me about ten minutes of glee time tomorrow," she informs him, strolling right into his office like she owns the place.

"Santana?" he questions, as if not believing his eyes. She doesn't know why though, she's been back home to visit more often than their other friends, so it's not really much of a surprise that she'd be around. But Finn's a moron, so she's not surprised. "What are you doing here?"

He stands up and when he looks like he's about to try to hug her, she quickly holds up her hands to stop him. "No, thank you, Finnocence. I'm here to talk business. It's Brittany's last day of high school tomorrow, and it's been brought to my attention that it will likely pass without much fan fair, and that's not happening on my watch. So like I said, give me ten minutes."

"Okay," he answers, not quite sure he totally follows what's going on. "At the beginning or the end?"

Santana thinks about it. "End. And you're going to assign everyone to sing a song dedicated to Britt."

"Santana, I've already given this week's assignment," he informs her, straightening out his shirt to seem more mature. She raises a challenging eyebrow at him. "It's Christmas songs, and everyone has already been working on them."

"You've been doing those since last week." She knows because Brittany gave her a sneak preview of her performance of Britney Spears' My Only Wish This Year (it was awesome, if she does say so herself). "It's only the middle of the day. Send out a mass text, call an emergency meeting, I don't care. Just get it done and don't let Brittany find out. Think you can handle that, Gassy Green Giant?"

"Uh," he drawls out, eyes darting to the side as he thinks it over. When he looks back at her, she's giving him that scary look she's so good at, so he quickly agrees. "Yeah, sure, I got it."

"Sure you do." With a scoff, she spins on her heel and storms out of the room, muttering curses in Spanish, about how Finn's incompetence is making Mr. Schuester look like he actually deserved that Teacher of the Year award. Knowing he can't be trusted to handle this, she pulls out her phone and dials the first appropriate name she scrolls by. "Wheels, I need you to do something for me. Well, for Brittany."

* * *

Brittany walks into the choir room the next day, expecting to spend her last meeting listening to Christmas songs. What she doesn't expect, is to find all the seats filled, a mix of current and past members of New Directions, all smiling at her. She spots Mercedes and Quinn sitting in the front beside Artie, Mike and Puck sitting with Blaine in the back, and Kurt and Rachel on the opposite end. Even Mr. Schue is standing next to Finn at the front of the room.

She's scanning the crowd for Santana, when her girlfriend sneaks up behind to give her a hug. "Surprise," she whispers to her, giving her waist a squeeze.

"What's going on?" the blonde asks, craning her neck to look at Santana and is met with a beaming smile.

"It's your last day," Santana reminds her, untangling her arms from around her waist and taking a hold of her hand. She gently leads her over to one of the two empty seats in the first row beside Mercedes, and guides her into it before walking over to stand in front of the group. "Okay, listen up. As you all know by now, today is Brittany's last day as a member of New Directions, before she comes to join me in Louisville, and that's a big damn deal!" Everyone claps and cheers for her, causing her cheeks to flush. "So, Britts, I called some old friends and luckily everyone was home for Christmas break, so I was able to get the gang together so we can all give you the send off you deserve."

Everyone cheers again, and Santana takes her seat beside Brittany, who can't resist giving her a huge kiss in gratitude. They smile at each other like huge dorks for a moment, until Mr. Schue claps his hands a couple times to get everyone's attention. It isn't until then that Brittany notices her name is written on the white board behind him. "Well, Brittany, like Santana said, today is going to be all about you. And I believe everyone has prepared a song to sing just for you."

"Since it was such short notice," Finn continues, confused by the glare Santana is sending him. "It's gonna be kind of a best of New Directions thing, and everyone is gonna sing something they've performed before. So I hope that's okay."

"That sounds totally cool!" She kind of likes that better, actually, because it makes her think of all the good times she's had with them over the years. She threads her fingers through Santana's, and rests her head on her shoulder, ready for the show.

Artie and Mike start off with PYT (which, given the original use of the song, they cleared with Santana first, who gave them the go ahead as long as Artie behaved himself), and the rest followed with repeat performances of their own. Even Mr. Schue gave an encore of Somewhere Over the Rainbow. Brittany's favorite, of course, was Rachel's completed version of My Headhand.

That is, until Santana gets up from her seat beside her and returns to her spot in the middle of the room for the final performance. Brittany notices her clutched hands in front of her, a sure sign that Santana's nervous. That confuses Brittany, since Santana is never nervous for regular choir room performances.

"Um, so, I asked if I could go last, because I have two songs I want to perform." Santana takes a deep breath and looks directly at Brittany, trying to ignore all the other eyes on her. "A couple years ago, when I was still just a mean, scared, closeted little girl, I brought you into this room, to sing you a song. A song that I spent the entire previous night listening to and crying, because it summed up my feelings for you perfectly." She can feel the surprise from some people, but she ignores it and forges on, continuing to only focus on Brittany's eyes, which are already shining with unshed tears. "When I was done, you asked why I couldn't sing it in front of everyone, and I said that I wasn't ready for that kind of public announcement. But, today, in front of our old friends and your new ones, I _am _ready. I'm ready to do something I should've done a long time ago."

Brittany sits up straighter in chair, and gives Santana a watery smile, hoping it will give her a little bit of extra courage. Soon, Brad begins to play, and the opening chords of Songbird fill the room. Santana takes another deep breath, and Brittany is transported back to Junior year. As she listens to Santana sing and pour all of her feelings out for the whole room to hear, she feels everything she felt back then, tenfold.

_And the songbirds keep singing,_

_Like they know the score,_

_And I love you, I love you, I love you,_

_Like never before._

The second the last note leaves Santana's lips, Brittany is out of her chair and crushing Santana in a hug. She can hear everyone clapping extra loudly behind her, but all of her attention is on her girlfriend. After a moment, she pulls back and cups Santana's blushing cheeks. "I love you so much. More than anything."

"I love you, too," Santana replies quietly, bringing their lips together in a soft kiss. They wipe each other's tears with a laugh, before turning back towards the crowd. Brittany starts to move back to her seat, remembering Santana said she had two songs to sing, but is stopped with a hand squeeze. "Wait. I actually need you for this one."

"What?"

"Well, that same year, when I was meaner, more scared and even further in the closet, you asked me to sing a duet with you." She lets out a humorless laugh, recalling the vicious words she threw at Brittany that afternoon. "Of course, I flipped out, said some horrible things to you, and ran to Mercedes to ask her to be my partner instead." Brittany's eyes widen in realization, that afternoon playing in her head as well. "And even though that duet was epic, I should've sang with you. I know we've sung together since, but I know how much that day hurt you." She recalls the day during their Spanish assignment that Ashley came to get her, and Brittany shared her feelings of neglect with her. "And I want to make it up to you. I want the last song we ever sing in glee club to be a song we should've sang years ago. I miss this place so much, and I know you will, too. It's where we fell in love, and I can't think of a more fitting way to end our time here than to come full circle, in a way."

Brittany's lip quivers as she tries to fight against the lump forming in her throat. "San…"

"What do you say? You remember the song?"

"Of course I do."

"And you'll sing with me?"

"What do you think?"

Smiling at each other, they link their hands and face their friends, who are all giving them encouraging grins, waiting. When they start singing Melissa Etheridge's Come to My Window, they can't help but laugh along with the others at the cheesiness.

Turns out Brittany's favorite day of glee club ends up being her last one.

* * *

In Christmas Eve tradition, Santana spends the night surrounded by her girls. She's got Brittany leaning into one side, and Ashley on the other. Even Lord Tubbington is curled up and sleeping on her lap.

"He missed you," Ashley comments, raising a hand and running it down the cat's back. He did. Almost anytime Santana was on Skype, he'd find his way towards the laptop and try to pop onto the screen.

Santana looks down at the fur ball on her lap and smiles. "Yeah, I might have missed him too. Maybe."

"I don't know what he's gonna do when we're both gone," Brittany coos, scratching behind his ear like he likes.

"Probably wander around the house, meowing hopelessly, looking for his mommy and Auntie Tana," Santana muses, jokingly. "There'll be nobody to sneak extra food in his bowl, or play with him in the backyard. He'll have to find someone else's bed to sleep on at night. He's gonna be lost without us." Suddenly, they hear a sniffle and then see a blur run past them. "Ash, what…"

"I think she's Lord Tubbington."

Santana furrows her brow and looks down at her girlfriend. "Huh?"

"What you were saying," Brittany explains, shifting away from Santana's side to get a better look at her. "About Tubbs missing us and being lost without us… Ashley probably feels the same way."

"Oh." Santana runs over what she just said in her head and cringes. "_Oh_. Right, of course, that was kind of shitty of me, huh?"

"You didn't mean to," the blonde tries to assure her. "It's just, she's really missed you. I know you know that, but you haven't seen just how much. And with me leaving now, too…"

"Yeah," she sighs, running a hand over her face. "Yeah, you're right." She looks at her girlfriend and sighs again. She gently shifts Lord Tubbington to Brittany's lap and stands up. "I should go talk to her."

Brittany nods and accepts the kiss on the cheek, playfully slapping Santana on the ass as she passes. "Good luck."

Santana climbs the stairs and finds Ashley's bedroom door closed. Taking a deep breath, she knocks on the door, hoping for a reply. When she gets nothing, she deflates. "Ash, come on, can I please come in?"

"I don't wanna talk," comes her muffled reply through the door.

"Ash, please," she tries again. She leans her forehead against the door and waits. "Come on, you don't wanna start Christmas mad at me, do you?"

She hears feet shuffling on the other side of the door, and then Ashley's tear stained face comes into view. The sight breaks her heart. "I'm not mad at you. I'm just sad." She sounds so much like her sister, Santana doesn't know what to do with herself.

"Can I come in? And we can talk about it?" Ashley nods, and moves aside, letting the older girl into her room. Santana sits down on the bed, waiting for the blonde to join her. "What's wrong, sweetheart?"

"I'm just sad, because you're both gonna leave soon," she explains, roughly wiping at her eyes. "I was trying to ignore it so I could enjoy Christmas, but…"

"I had to open my big mouth?"

Ashley giggles a little, but it comes out as more of a hiccup. "Yeah."

"I'm sorry, kiddo," Santana apologizes, running a hand through her hair to soothe her. "I wasn't really thinking. I know it's gonna be really hard on you when we're both gone. We're kinda like a team, and now you won't have us. I know how much it sucks to be the one by yourself. I missed you guys so much when I was at school."

"You only missed Brittany," Ashley grumbles with a pout. "And now that she's gonna be with you, you'll never come visit me."

"Is that what this is about?" Ashley shrugs. Santana shakes her head, and moves further onto the bed, pulling a reluctant Ashley up with her, so that's she's seated on her lap. "Okay, yes, maybe I missed Britts the most, but she wasn't the only thing I missed. I missed my parents, I missed _your_ parents. I missed Tubbs, and even glee club. I missed _you_. You have no idea how much I missed you, Ash."

Ashley's not convinced. "No you didn't."

"I did too," she repeats, pulling the little girl tighter against her. "You know when I missed you the most? Every weekend when I'd wake up from my alarm clock, and not from some brat jumping on me. Or every time a Taylor Swift song came on, and nobody was around to sing along obnoxiously." She could see the ghost of a smile making its way onto Ashley's lips for a moment. "I didn't have anyone to tuck in, or give piggyback rides to, or crawl into my lap when I was watching TV. Nobody distracted me when I was trying to study, or stole food off my plate, or begged me for ice cream."

"Why would you miss all that stuff?" Ashley wonders, making a face at the list Santana just made.

"Because I miss _you_," Santana insists, bringing her hand up to the blonde's face to wipe away the few remaining tears on her cheeks. "I miss everything about you, kiddo. And that's not going to change now that Brittany's with me. Brittany doesn't do those things. Well, maybe some of them, but you know what I mean. There are some things only a little sister does, and you're the only little sister I've got."

Ashley studies Santana's face for a moment, before a smile slowly grows into a grin. "Really?"

"Duh."

"So, you'll still visit?"

"Of course," she promises, giving the girl's cheek a pinch. "We'll be here every other weekend, just like we promised. And we'll still Skype and talk on the phone. That's not gonna change. I wasn't just calling to talk to Britt."

Ashley nods and buries her head in the crook of Santana's neck. "I know. You wanted to talk to Tubby, too."

"That's right," Santana laughs, pressing a kiss to the little girl's forehead. "And hey, look at it this way; when we come back, I'll have more time to catch up with you, since I won't be making up for lost time with Britt. You'll see me so much, you'll be sick of me."

"Never," Ashley promises, wrapping her arms around Santana's neck and giving her a big hug. "I'm sorry I was being a cry baby. I just missed you a lot, and now I'm gonna miss Brittany, too, and I'm gonna be really lonely."

Santana nods in sympathy. "I know, sweetie, but it'll be okay. We'll talk lots, and soccer will be starting soon, right? And you've got Jacks! And Tubbs! And I hear the PTA at your school is getting less uptight? I bet your bratty friends from school will be allowed to come over now that Britts and I will be gone. You won't be lonely at all. And when you are, just call. I'm sure one of us will be able to talk. Okay?"

"Okay."

"Okay," Santana echoes with a laugh. She tickles the girl's sides, before throwing her over her shoulder to carry her towards the door. "Let's get back to our movie marathon before Britt falls asleep down there and scares Santa."

* * *

The next morning, when Ashley opens her gift from Santana, and finds multiple tickets to the Louisville Zoo and some place called Bluegrass, she's confused. She looks over to where Santana is cuddled up on the coach with her sister watching her, and gives her a questioning look.

"Bluegrass is this indoor go-carting place, you'll love it," Santana explains with an excited smile. "And I figured animals is a safe bet with any Pierce." Brittany and her parents voice their agreement with that statement. Ashley still looks confused and Santana's smile grows. "For when you come visit us on weekends, Ash."

Ashley's eyes widen, and she immediately looks towards her parents for confirmation, and the two of them nod. "We've all discussed it, and since Brittany is getting that single room after all, we think it will be okay for you to go visit once a month." Santana had called the Pierces to ask about the possibility before leaving for break, promising that she and Brittany would take great care of her while she was visiting. After she assured them that the dorms were all very safe and clean, and the particular building Brittany would be living in doesn't have many parties, they agreed. "Santana will come pick you up on Fridays, since she has the day off, and one of us will come pick you up on Sundays."

"Oh my God!" Ashley gives her parents a hug before she launches herself at the couple on the couch in excitement.

Santana laughs and ruffles the girl's hair. "Told you, you'd be sick of me soon."

* * *

Christmas dinner is spent at the Pierces, with Mrs. Pierce and Mrs. Lopez splitting the cooking duties. Since Santana wasn't invited to dinner at her abuela's house, her parents decided to join Santana at the Pierces and have a meal as a big family. It went off without a hitch, and Santana couldn't help but imagine the many holidays like it to come.

The week between Christmas and New Years is spent either lounging around the house, hanging out with old friends, or packing up Brittany's stuff to get her ready for school. There's also a lot of talks with parents, about responsibility and grades and expectations.

They decided to have a quiet New Years Eve in, since half of their friends have already gone back to their new homes, and any party in town is full of drunken high school kids. Ashley falls asleep between them before midnight, and when the ball drops, they kiss both her cheeks at the same time, before sharing a kiss of their own.

When the girls leave to head back to school, Ashley is a trooper, and only cries a little bit. She gives them each a big hug, and tells them she loves them and that she'll miss them. As she stands with her parents, waving goodbye to the car that starts disappearing down the road, she knows she'll be okay, because Brittany and Santana would never really leave her behind.

* * *

**Not sure when the next update will be, or what it'll be about, but I'll try not to be so long! Please review, I'm interested in what you think of the first time jump. And let me know of anything you want to see in future chapters.**


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